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

Absolutely. I will outline the only reason I would encourage the Minister of State to look at it. Let us go back to the discussion we had earlier about the building control amendment regulations, BCAR. The maximum fine for a breach of BCAR is €5,000. It might be €10,000 but from memory, I believe it is €5,000. That is lower than some of the upper ends of the Residential Tenancies Board fines, for example for landlords not adequately addressing the issue of antisocial behaviour and criminal activity of their tenants. We have seen a range of such fines of €15,000 to €20,000 imposed by the board without recourse to the courts. That can be quite a stiff penalty. If a person is a sole trader and out doing dodgy extensions for people, the idea of getting hit with a fine of €10,000 or €20,000 just on foot of a decision by the board, could be a much nimbler instrument then a formal court prosecution. I am not in any way arguing that the board should be allowed to impose fines of €500,000. That should be in the courts. One of the weaknesses of this section of the Bill is that there is not enough flexibility in some of the sanctions that could be applied. I ask the Minister of State to consider this.