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

I will explain the reason I am asking that. I refer, for example, to building control in Dublin city. Dublin City Council inspects 100% of all multi-unit developments. It does not have to do so. The protocol requires about 15%. This means that there are two checks. There are the assigned certifiers, the design certifiers, but there is also the local authority. It would seem that in a preventative manner, if there was a capacity for the NSAI and the other notified bodies to at least have a capacity to do some independent inspections, that might be a very valuable thing. That is just a comment.

I am keen to understand the architecture of this. If I get it right, the Department is a notifying authority. It then appoints notified bodies. I think Mr. Ó Coigligh indicated there are ten of those. I would like to know who they are, either at committee or by way of a note to committee afterwards. Why do we have ten? What is the difference between them? Five technical assessment bodies were also mentioned. I would be interested to know the relationship between those.

I have a question for Ms Phelan. In terms of our building control authorities and the NBCMSO, Ms Neary mentioned a figure of 70 authorised officers. In terms of the capacity of our building control authorities, do they have enough staff? Do the staff both in the NBCMSO and in the local authorities have the kind technical expertise needed? I have met some building control officers. They are planners or engineers by profession. They would not have the expertise in geology. It is not just about the numbers of staff, but do they have the technical competence to be able to carry out some of this building product surveillance work, which is very different from the assessments of the building process? Perhaps we can start with Ms Phelan and then go to Mr. Ó Coigligh and Ms Neary.