Ms Sarah Neary:

From the regulatory perspective, the building regulations set the minimum performance for buildings in Ireland on foot of the Building Control Act. The building regulations are set in functional terms around the performance. They take the building as a whole and they look at the building from 12 different perspectives, including structure, fire, water ingress, access for people with all sorts of abilities, conservation, fuel and energy and so on. It is very much a holistic approach. There are broad performance terms. They are material neutral and are based on the health, safety and welfare of people in or around buildings. They are very broad functional and legal requirements. When you go down a layer, it is about how to comply with those broad performance terms. The construct that exists are technical guidance documents. Technical guidance documents are a means of showing compliance with those regulations. They are not the only way. For innovative, non-standardised forms of construction, there are other approaches. These include Agrément certification, third party certification or bespoke primary design from first principles. There is a big difference between compliance with the building regulations and compliance with the technical guidance documents. Much of what Mr. Armstrong has talked about is developing up modern methods of construction in that innovative space and supporting that. The technical guidance documents are often painted as a barrier to timber construction going above a certain level but they have to be seen in the structure of building regulations. They are geared towards non-complex common buildings. In Ireland 98% of all buildings are under 10 m in height. If you take out housing, which can skew the figures, 92% of all buildings are under 10 m in height. That is where technical guidance is provided. It is about how to comply easily. That is why we supported the development of supplementary guidance for timber construction, so that it isprima facieevidence of compliance and it is easier for inspectors to check that it has been done right, it is easier for manufacturers to produce it right and builders to build it right. The cross laminated timber, CLT, and the glulam that the Deputy mentioned are more in the space of innovative forms of construction. In regard to the 18 m of the building in Norway, we have buildings at that height. They are bespoke. Some are designed from first principles. There is a facility to do that within building regulations but it requires more attention to detail both at design and construction stages. Given our history and past, and the importance of building control and building right, not everything is equal. Where people have experience and there is a good deal of guidance it is a different scenario from an emerging form of construction that needs to be very carefully considered.