Ms Sarah Neary:

There is huge reform under way through the building control process. The three main pillars are that when a building is being designed now it must have a full commencement notice, a design certificate that it is in accordance with the building regulations, and a submission of design and compliance drawings. An assigned certifier is then appointed who carries out certain inspections at various critical points in the project and then at the end, a builder and the assigned certifier signs a certificate of completion and compliance with the building regulations. There is major reform in terms of the organisation of construction projects.

Also, in the context of the CPR and construction products themselves being placed on the market, there are five systems of assessment under the CPR ranging from complete manufacturer's declaration of what he or she is doing, and self-certification, to full third party assessment of both the initial testing, the ongoing testing, the factory production control set-up and the factory production control continuous surveillance. Depending on the critical nature of the product, the higher up that scale one goes. That is set at European level, therefore, any fire-related products generally will be at the higher end of the scale.