Ms Sarah Neary:

There was a legal challenge to it, which was settled, but the Office of the Attorney General recommended this be addressed in primary legislation. This is the first item. A follow-on from this is, as Deputy Ó Broin calls it, the retention process or the regularisation process. We certainly do not want this to become an alternative route. A number of safeguards are in place that are set out in the heads of the Bill. The first thing to mention is that all of the same control procedures would apply in the regularisation procedures. There would be a regularisation notice, regularisation fire certificates, disability access certificates and a regularisation certificate of compliance on completion. All of this would be required at the earliest opportunity when this becomes a matter of fact or comes to the attention of the authorities. All of these procedures would have to be complied with.

The real principle here is that buildings comply with the building regulations and Deputy Ó Broin mentioned a couple of important ones. The legislation also provides distinct powers for the building control authority to direct the builder to open up works in order that they can demonstrate compliance. This process would only be available under certain circumstances in the first place. It would come with additional fees, which would be proportionate to the works but would be punitive and significantly bigger than in the normal process. There would also be opening up work where necessary, which is expensive, and undoing works that are already done.