Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

That is a very important part. This section is about individuals having the right to make a complaint against someone who is registered and for that complaint to be investigated. Just because breach of building regulations is one of the grounds for complaint, if it is minor, it does not necessarily mean that the person would be struck off the register. If there were serious breaches of building control regulations, people could raise a complaint and they could be struck off the register which would then mean they would no longer be able to build; it would not be legal for them to do so. When that is said out loud, I am very confident there is agreement in all parties across the Oireachtas. I do not believe anyone thinks it is in any way tolerable for people to have flagrant breaches of building control regulations on an ongoing basis, especially given recent history in this country and the massive costs we have talked about already.

As Deputy Ó Broin said, people in the industry want this. Some of the most vocal people on this are builders. We often hear of builders who have experience of working in the UK, for example. They come back here and cannot get over how lax some of these things are and why it is tolerated. Most builders take pride in their work and they do not want a minority of rogue builders who create enormous damage and reputational damage for everyone working in the industry. People who are serious about the industry, which is most people engaged in it, want this addressed. At a political level, across all parties, I presume everyone wants this addressed. The public want it addressed. If it is not done in this legislation, it will not be addressed. There is a very strong case for it.

I understand the rationale that this is constructed on the basis that people can only make complaints on the technical side related to registration. However, this section deals with competence, criteria and compliance with the building control regulations on a consistent basis. It is a very important form of competence and is highly relevant in that sense. If it is not included in the legislation, especially now that an amendment has been proposed on it, it almost implies that there is a view in the Oireachtas that that would not be an important part of competence for a builder. Clearly, we would all have the view that it is.

I agree with what Deputy Ó Broin has said. I ask the Minister of State to see if this can be done in a way that he is happy with. He may be able to introduce an amendment on Report Stage. If we do not do that, it could be years before this is addressed elsewhere. We appreciate that there is other legislation relating to building control, but we must be able to make it illegal for people who were in flagrant breach of building control regulations to build; they must be struck off. The whole point of having a register is that people like that can be struck off.