Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 26 May 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Developments in the Insurance Industry: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. John Power:

I will come in there, if the Deputy does not mind. Mr. Lyons will address the specifics of some of the Deputy's questions. The Deputy mentioned passing some of the costs on to the customer. Unfortunately, that will probably not be able to happen because the customer will probably not be able to pay. In terms of sign-off on the project, it will not happen and the customer will not take delivery of their house, development or whatever at the end of the day. I emphasise that the expertise is here. We have plenty of engineers who have the expertise to sign off on this throughout the country. However, if we cannot get to the bottom of this issue, the inevitability is that the construction sector will suffer significantly and there will be a significant number of job losses at a professional level. Mr. Lyons will address the other issues.