Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

With the leave of the Cathaoirleach, there are a small number of matters I wish to raise that we may be bringing as amendments on Report Stage in other areas that were not referred to already.

In addition to these Parts, the Government intends to bring forward amendments to allow for the sharing of information by other regulatory authorities on enforcement and prosecutions with the registration body.

Section 34 of the Bill provides that an applicant shall furnish information to the board in respect of certain convictions or orders under the Building Control Act 1990, the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, the Fire Services Act 1981, or certain environmental legislation.

Section 26 of the Bill provides that the register shall contain such information in order that the registration body can be satisfied that it processes all of this information and I intend to bring forward amendments to allow for this data sharing.

We will also bring forward amendments on data processing and governance. These will be in line with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Data Sharing and Governance Act 2019.

In addition, we will bring forward a number of administrative amendments to the Building Control Act 2007 which provide for the statutory register for architects, building surveyors and quantity surveyors. These amendments are the introduction of a requirement for mandatory maintenance of continuous professional development and for the amending of section 71(5)(a) of the Act to allow the professional conduct committee to operate with a quorum of five instead of six. This will allow the committee to hear more than one inquiry at a time and will also help address the anomaly which permits the same members of the committee to consider the complaint at investigation stage and to also consider it at inquiry stage.

We intend to amend the Act to remove the requirement to send two notices by registered post before removing a registered professional from a register for non-payment of fees, which will be replaced by one notice by registered post and one by electronic means.

We intend to further amend the Act to clarify where the professional conduct committee is of the opinion that there are no prima faciecases established and where there should be no further proceedings.

We intend to amend the Act to change the title of the registration body for surveyors because when the Act was drafted and enacted the title of SCSI, the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, was the Society of Chartered Surveyors. The Society of Chartered Surveyors and the Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute merged in 2011 and the title of the merged organisation was amended to the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland.

It is also intended to amend the sections of the Act in respect of surveyors to replace the word "associate" with "professional member".

I am just flagging those issues for Report Stage.