Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State might send that note in respect of upskilling to the clerk to the committee rather than to me directly in order that the entire committee can benefit from it.

I have one additional point to make in respect of this matter. I have spoken to a number of medium-sized contractors in different parts of the country. One of the concerning things they told me was that they are beginning to notice a drop-off in the number of young people who are entering into a variety of construction industry professions. When I asked them the reason, because they are talking to people and trying to recruit them into the industry, they said the nature of the work and additional stress of, for example, travel times and insecurity between jobs compared with the lack of career progression and new opportunities to upskill and develop, is a real problem. We might look at countries that do this really well. Scotland, for example, has made great strides in recent years in providing good-quality career progression and upskilling. Germany is probably one of the best in terms of its career path progression. It is really important. I look forward to reading the note.

With respect to the code of practice, I must say that I do not agree with the argument against it insofar as building regulations are changing quite a lot. They change all the time, which is a good thing, and they will continue to change. In terms of the code of practice, I would have thought it made eminent sense to have it here. I have tabled amendments elsewhere in which I would like building regulations inserted as well but I can see no reason why not to put it here. If this register is to be of real value, continued improvement has to mean continued improvement in adherence to the requirements of building regulations. I will go back, for example, to the areas in which we had some of the most significant fire safety defects. In some of those areas, there are no requirements to have any training or continued improvement because there is no skills requirement at all. Fire stopping and fire safety works is one clear example.

This is one amendment I would really ask the Minister of State to reconsider. Again, perhaps my wording is not elegant enough or there is a better way to do it but it would be remiss not to have some reference to building regulations in the code of practice.