Mr. John Power:

I will start again. I thank Senator Sherlock for her question. Regarding the building control amendment regulations, BCARS, that were mentioned, we regard it as positive that professionals have increasingly become involved in this area. Competence is now employed throughout the process and paper trails exist. It is a very positive change and we are very happy with it. Turning to the market, and I should say that I am not enormously competent in this area, one must ultimately look at the risk versus reward element in this regard. Many of the British operators have left the Irish market, obviously, because they were not receiving a return on their investment for some reason. I am not stating where the fault lies for that, because it is not our job to blame people. Our job is to recognise that there is an issue and that we must all get together around a table to sort it out for the good of the construction sector in Ireland.

However, an obvious reason for companies to leave would be the risk versus reward factor. We are all aware of situations where some awards have been very significant. Clearly, only a certain amount of money is available to balance awards against claims and that is the perspective from which the insurance companies are looking at this situation. It may, therefore, be a matter of us looking at all the elements involved, namely, the premiums, the availability of those premiums, how the whole area is structured in respect of where the money goes and who gets the most out of it in the end. We must ask ourselves which organisation will ultimately be left standing, because that entity will generally see a significant benefit in remaining involved in the market. If we look at this whole area collectively, I think we can probably come up with some better solutions.