Ms Deirdre Ní Fhloinn:

I am happy to come in on that. In the first instance, I thank the Senator very much for her questions. Regarding the first question on how one discriminates as to priority for grants, I believe that will be one of the things the working group will have to look at. We already discriminate in a way because institutional and commercial owners of apartments, for example, can write off all the remedial costs against their tax liability arising from their income, which a homeowner typically cannot. That is one issue for the working group. There is, however, an in-built discrimination in the system as it stands, so the working group will have to look at how a fairer system can be created for individual homeowners who are dealing with it and getting the types of bills we have heard about this morning.

Regarding a defects clearance certificate and the phoenix syndrome, one of the issues the committee considered in the past was the general scheme of the Building Control (Construction Industry Register Ireland) Bill 2017, which contemplates a registration scheme where an individual, for example, who is convicted under the Building Control Act would have to tell the registration body he or she has been convicted and might not get a registration the following year.

One of the comments I made to the committee about it at the time was that to my knowledge there had never been a conviction under the Building Control Act. I am sometimes asked about sanctions and whether we should spend some of this discussion on improving sanctions and making sure there are sanctions against developers. There are sanctions in the Building Control Act in respect of anyone who constructs buildings that are not in compliance with the building regulations. They look robust and have been regularly recited in the Houses of the Oireachtas. They say that if a body corporate, for example, is in breach of building regulations and in breach of the Act, then individual managers and directors of that body corporate can be held personally responsible and can be convicted of the offences under the Act, which all sounds very robust, except it is never done.

There are, therefore, various ways to address this issue of phoenix syndrome but, as of today, I can set up a company called Deirdre Ní Fhloinn 2020 Limited. If I have a site, I can apply for planning permission. I might even get fast-track planning permission for it. I can commence building on it by submitting a commencement notice. I do not need any kind of approval from my building control authority. The only people who must be regulated on that site are either regulated by their own professional bodies, if they are architects, engineers and surveyors, or by an external regulator if they are gas installers and electricians. I am not regulated. I do not need to carry insurance or a licence. I can sell those homes and disappear next year. If anybody sues me, I can sign the certificate of compliance on completion, which is required under the building control regulations, in the name of my limited company and then if there is a problem with it, the person who is the assigned certifier, such as the architect or engineer, will probably be at much greater risk. We are aware of these issues and there are ways of dealing with them but that is the position today.