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

Likewise, I strongly oppose the appointment of CIF to be the register.

In his opening statement, the Minister of State referred to how, "Given the wider functions of the CIF, there are a number of safeguards in place". That latter statement on safeguards given the other roles of the Construction Industry Federation is not a position we should be in. I mean we should not appoint a body to this role when the Minister feels that additional or particular safeguards need to be put in place. There should just be absolute independence and no question about that.

This week, we had a delegation from the Construction Defects Alliance in the Oireachtas to give a briefing to Oireachtas Members. One of the striking things from the hour-long presentation was that they talked about the huge stress that construction defects put on homeowners and residents. They said that a lot of the volunteer directors in the management companies and apartment blocks are already under a huge amount of additional stresses and pressures. In his presentation, Mr. Kevin Hollingsworth showed that the serious defects in apartment blocks were not there by accident or a lack of knowledge. He showed the visual evidence that there were serious defects and that fire safety compartmentalisation was breached on a vast scale deliberately by people who knew exactly what they were doing by cutting corners and maybe saved a little bit of time or a little expense. He gave an example where a saving of about €30 was made by deliberately breaking through the concrete compartmentalisation between two apartments and two floors. In fact, the move put the entire building at risk in terms of fire spread and smoke spread, which is most likely to affect people or kill people. This is not like a normal industry in terms of its track record. It really is a stand-out in terms of the billions of euro the State is going to have to put in and is putting in through remediation for the massive damage done to people's lives. I am not saying that the Construction Industry Federation is responsible for that but to have a representative organisation of many of the people who are responsible for that performing a role that should be independent does not stand up.

I have a few questions. How long will the appointment be for and when will it be reviewed?

I am not asking the Minister of State to speculate on a change of Government but if, for example, there was a change of Government or a change in its composition in two years' time, could the new Government or Minister change this straight away? What is the process around it? How long is this for? Is there a guaranteed length of time on it?

On the decision-making about this, who else was under consideration, apart from the CIF? Was the rationale for the CIF in particular to be chosen? While I am aware it has been running the voluntary register, apart from that what was the particular rationale for it, as opposed to any other body that would be independent? Were the strong concerns articulated by the Opposition during the debate on the Bill considered during this process? I seek a comment on what Deputy Ó Broin said. Is the federation's appointment as a result of informal agreement or negotiations or anything at any stage whereby it would support the introduction of this legislation and of this role if it was to be appointed to it? Some comment on that would be useful.

I absolutely support the introduction of the independent building standards regulator. It needs to be done and to be taken seriously. Can the Minister of State provide a timeframe for that legislation? How is that progressing? All of us can agree it is an important role that is badly needed and it needs to be a priority. To reiterate, can the Minister of State give us some information on and the timeline for the independent building standards regulator legislation that is currently being worked on? That is very important. Presumably, when that independent building standards regulator is set up, it could take on this role. Does the Minister of State have a view in this regard?