Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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We are doing a number of things on that issue. First of all, we are going to have a register of builders in the future. That is mandatory. A builder will not be able to build in Ireland if he or she is not on the register. If people are removed from the register, that will obviously have very serious implications for their business. It will be non-viable. That is the first thing. That is not in this Bill, but is in legislation around building regulations which will be coming down the tracks very shortly. It is nearly ready.

In this legislation, and in a later amendment on it, the record of a builder or developer is brought in and can be factored in in the context of new planning permissions and the consideration around them. Again, we need sensible implementation of that from chief executives and planning authorities that actually looks at the detail of a person's history.

They should certainly be able to factor that in, however. We do not want people who have basically shown themselves to be incapable of delivering high-quality buildings.