Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

I share the Deputy's concern about the people who are affected by this, and I am doing something about it. Long before any Priory Hall problem erupted, in July this year, after three months in office, I authorised a review of the building regulations. They are out in public consultation, and we will be implementing them early in 2012. That process will introduce mandatory certification of compliance by builders, not the haphazard approach we had previously. Those professional bodies should have been much more engaged in ensuring that the membership of those professional bodies, in a devolved way, exercised the trust this Parliament and Dublin City Council gave them. We must have more efficient pooling of staff and resources to target the areas about which the Deputy spoke to ensure there is proper enforcement and implementation of the building regulations and a standardised approach and common protocols across the local authority sector, as already stated by Deputy Stanley.

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