Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is okay. From what I understand we are talking about the contractor who initiates the procedure. He registers on the revenue online system and when it gets to the requirements under subsection (5) the final bit of the jigsaw is not put in place and therefore the home owner cannot benefit from the work. We must have some control. I accept that Deputy Doherty’s point is an unusual one. While it is possible that it would happen, one could ask why a contractor would not do what is required on the basis that he wants other work. During the break I was thinking about the issue. We previously discussed the disability grant of which many of us are aware from our work in local authorities, whereby in order to qualify one had to get a number of compliant contractors who would have the certification in place and equally would be prepared to pitch for the business. The same standard will apply in this case. What would be the point in a contractor having set up the process and in effect having done the work, or being in the process of doing it, not do fulfil the final step? Deputy Doherty made the point that he could go out of business or skip the country. In that scenario I suppose the householder would lose out but there are significant penalties for such behaviour. We must have a properly controlled system with a beginning, middle and end where the work done is vouched. Because the online system will be in place both the householder and the contractor can see the progress that is made. Deputy Doherty raises a minority issue and while I concede that it could potentially happen I cannot understand why a contractor who wants other business under the scheme would do that if he wants to be able to say to friends, relations, family and neighbours that he is compliant and point to the work he did for Mrs. Murphy or Mr. Murphy and for people to be able to ask them how he has done.

An enormous number of inquiries have been made to the Department and to Revenue since the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, first made the announcement in the budget. People are already engaged in the process. There is considerable interest in getting started on the scheme. I do not wish to use this as a default position but if the issue arises over the next two years we can examine it again. However, we do not anticipate it being a problem.

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