Mr. Feargal ? Coigligh:

As I have said, we have been on a journey. There is more to be done. The report on Donegal calls for more resources. There are commitments in the programme for Government to examine the need to establish a national building control authority to bring about that level of expertise. It is clear that there are particular technical skills required in the market surveillance area. The issue is how best to aggregate those skills in the State. There are issues around the employment and retention of staff in local authorities across all fields. This is a challenging area but we will take on board the recommendations in the report and the commitments in the programme for Government and determine what more needs to be done in this space. In fact, a review of Housing for All that was published a few weeks ago also points to the need for a national building control system. The point is made in the in the report, we are hearing it in this room as well and it is taken.

I will let Ms Neary respond to the question on notified bodies and technical assessment bodies, but I stress again, as Ms Phelan said, that this is a Single Market issue. There is a layer of EU law in place to facilitate the Single Market and the movement of goods, and also to provide assurances to citizens across the EU that products purchased within the EU are safe and appropriate for use. Some of the architecture and terminology can sometimes sound a little bit clunky because are taking those EU structures and overlaying them onto our own systems.