Ms Mair?ad Phelan:

I thank the Chair for inviting us here today. I am joined by Mr. Richard Butler, from the National Building Control and Market Surveillance Office.

I will set the scene by giving an outline of what we do. We are quite a new office. We were set up in 2019, which saw the function in Dublin City Council becoming a shared service with the National Building Control Office. Then, in 2020, we were asked to take on the lead role for the national market surveillance office. Effectively, the office is a shared service that operates as independent unit within Dublin City Council’s planning, development and property department. It is a paperless and fully remote office. It provides for standardisation in the development and delivery of building control and market surveillance in the 31 local authorities. It is fully funded by the local authorities. Mr. Richard Shakespeare, the assistant chief executive of Dublin City Council, chairs an advisory committee to manage the unit on behalf of the 31 chief executives of the local authorities.

I will give members a brief overview of the work we do in building control in Ireland. There are 31 building control and market surveillance authorities, usually known as building control authorities, and we operate under the legislative framework of the Building Control Acts 1990 to 2014, which regulate the design and construction of buildings and works in Ireland. They provide for the health, safety and welfare of people in or about buildings. That is the important part. It is about the health, safety and welfare of people who are in or about buildings, as well as access for all, conservation of fuel and energy and the promotion of good building practice.

Building control officers monitor the implementation of the construction products regulations, where they carry out market surveillance for compliance. That is under EU Regulation No. 305/2011, which prescribes the basic requirements for construction works. It states that construction works as a whole, and in their separate parts, must be fit for their intended use. That is the important part there. In construction, in particular, consideration must be given to the health and safety of persons involved throughout the life cycle of the works. Subject to normal maintenance, these basic requirements should be satisfied for a reasonable working life of a building, which is 50 to 60 years, before any major remediation should take place. Building control authorities also have functions under the EU energy performance of building regulations, SI 243 of 2012. That promotes improvement of the energy performance of buildings with the adoption of the methodology for calculating building energy ratings, BERs. Building control authorities monitor and ensure and enforce that every building, before it is opened, occupied and the building is put up for sale or rent, must have a BER certificate.

In summary, the 31 designated building control authorities monitor compliance with building control, the European energy performance and building regulations and they carry out market surveillance for construction products regulations. They have good powers of inspections. Last year, they carried out 38,000 inspections on buildings in Ireland. The year before, the figure was 17,852. We must remember that the responsibility for compliance rests with the owners of the buildings and works, as well as with the designers and the builders, not with the building control authorities. They have their functions under the Building Control Acts, the market surveillance of construction products and the building energy rating legislation. They therefore operate under quite an extensive legislative framework. I have provided the legislative framework surrounding building control and construction products in our submission to the committee.

For the purpose of this committee meeting, which is on carbon and energy in the construction industry, the fundamental requirement of building control authorities is that all buildings are designed and constructed in accordance with the appropriate requirements of the building regulations in such a manner as to avoid breaching any other requirement. No works can be carried out that would cause a new or a greater contravention in the building of any requirement. There are 12 requirements under the Building Control Acts, namely, part A on structure; part B on fire safety; part C on site preparation and resistance to moisture; part D on materials and workmanship; part E on sound; part F on ventilation; part G on hygiene; part H on drainage and wastewater disposal; part J on heat producing appliances; part K on stairways, ladders, ramps and guards; part L on conservation of fuel and energy; and part M on access and use. All of those must be complied with. All buildings, subject to normal maintenance and wear and tear, should have a lifespan of 50 to 60 years, before any major remediation works are carried out. It is all set out and must be complied with.

As energy efficiency standards, that is, the requirement to reduce the carbon emissions and heat loss from buildings, rise, we have to remember that insulation, improvement and structure cannot be separated. Consequently, to just go and retrofit these buildings without looking at parts A to M of the building regulations would be a no-no. Risk assessment must be carried out for the impact on all the other parts of the regulations when a retrofit is considered. I have included in our submission to the committee an example of what a risk assessment would look like.

Every product in building must be assessed as a whole and in its separate parts to ensure fitness for its intended use, considering in particular health, safety and welfare people. This is because people are going to be living in these. The Building Control Acts are for the health, safety and welfare of people in or about buildings. In other words, when we improve part L, which pertains to conservation of fuel and energy, we must ensure that we are not causing a new or greater contravention to the other parts of the regulations, especially to part A on structure; part B on fire safety; and part C on site preparation and resistance to moisture.

This is because in the context of the relationship between air tightness and insulation, the level of radon may increase and that must be tested after upgrading the part L requirement. The severity of exposure to wind and rain also must be considered when retrofitting. For example, Donegal is a high exposure area, as opposed to Carlow, which is a lower exposure area. Then you will be impacting on part F, pertaining to ventilation. It is important not to look at upgrading without looking at the other parts of the regulations. Parts F and L come as a set and the National Building Control Office will hold a continuous professional development, CPD, day on parts F and L on 5 May. Members are welcome to join in person or online and the Eventbrite link is in our written submission. Much insulation may be combustible. Part D, on materials and workmanship, is probably the most important requirement of the buildings requirements and is not given the importance is requires.That part states:

All works to which these Regulations apply shall be carried out with proper materials and in a workmanlike manner. [...] To ensure a proper standard of workmanship, it is essential that persons are competent, possessing sufficient training, experience and knowledge appropriate to the nature of the work he or she is required to perform and having particular regard to the size and complexity of such works.

That is a big compliance challenge for building control officers. Building control authorities in Ireland have consistently noted that Part D compliance challenges are the biggest impediment to compliance. You can have lovely modular buildings and lovely factory production control and then they arrive on site and the competent people are not there to direct them. That is a big issue. The biggest impediments to compliance with building regulations are the serious lack of trained and competent builders and tradespeople in construction and lack of CPD for trained builders.