Mr. Cormac Bradley:

At the outset, I will highlight the subtle difference between inspection and supervision. An inspection is a frequent visit to a site as works are in progress while supervision implies a full-time on-site presence. In many ways, the proposal that the Department of Education and Skills would now put a clerk of works on sites of new school projects harks back to a previous era where a building project, or civil engineering project for that matter, would have had full-time on-site supervision. A return to a clerk of works environment for the Department's projects is a positive move. However, in the context of the CIRI Bill, the builder is not responsible for inspection; the builder is responsible for full-time supervision. If one looks at the BCAR documentation and the certificate of compliance and completion that the builder is obliged to sign in his or her individual capacity, it makes specific reference to the requirement to provide on-site supervision. It provides for specific undertakings and a commitment and declaration that the works have been carried out in accordance with drawings, specifications, performance parameters and everything else.

Inspections do not impact on CIRI in terms of membership of the CIRI board, because the builders who will be expecting to get onto that register are providing supervision and do not provide inspections. However, the professionals attached to a project - the engineers, architects and building surveyors - work to an inspection regime. I imagine that we would collectively welcome the fact that a clerk of works for a Department of Education and Skills project would be placed on site. We need to be very careful, however. If there is a party on site who is answerable to the client body while others who are answerable to the client body are there in an inspection capacity, there will have to be very clearly defined areas of responsibility and lines of communication to ensure there is no duplicity or double work. While this is welcome, it is not a panacea to solve the problems of the sector and the mistakes of the past. I suggest also that everyone is entitled to a second bite of the cherry, provided he or she can prove he or she has amended his or her behaviour in accordance with the requirements of the CIRI register.