Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this report from the Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government. Many of the issues it covers and many of the actions it suggests were also included in a motion on building standards and homeowner protection tabled by the Green Party that was passed by the Dáil last June. I commend all the members of the committee on their work on this report, as well as all the expert witnesses who contributed to it.

The issues this report outlines are damning. For those people who save up and take on a mortgage, a house and a home is the most expensive and important decision which they and their families will ever make, yet control and regulation in this area is still woefully inadequate. We can see that we still have a culture of industry self-regulation. We still have massive under-resourcing and bad communication in and between the building control sections of local authorities. While the Building Control (Amendment) Regulations 2014 constituted a positive change to the regime that was in place before, it is still a system of self-certification. The lack of regulation and quality control on our homes is something which is still hanging over us.

Last week the independent inquiry into building standards that was ordered by the UK Government following the Grenfell tragedy was published. That report speaks of a race-to-the-bottom culture in the construction industry - doing things as cheaply as possible - where concerns by others involved in the building process, or residents of housing, are ignored. It also speaks of a lack of enforcement of the regulations, which are not seen as an effective deterrent. This certainly was the case in Ireland during the boom era and may still be true today. Residents are living in dangerous homes, afraid for their safety, with no help from Government to fix defects. Enforcement is under-resourced and practically non-existent.

The recommendations the report before us outlines would go some way towards ensuring the safety of our homes. This report sets out four sets of recommendations. The first set calls for a new State regulator for building standards. Such a regulator would be along the lines of the Food Safety Authority and the environmental protections. It would be a strong, well-resourced independent building regulator, something which was also called for in the Green Party's motion last June. We desperately need such a regulator to oversee national building control and actively and robustly regulate those involved in construction. We cannot ensure there is appropriate building control compliance in this country without a fully resourced, new building regulator office with a real and effective enforcement agency.

This ties into the second set of recommendations, which looks at making the building control regulations truly independent. The Building Control (Amendment) Regulations 2014 put in place a system of assigned certifiers but this is still effectively self-regulation by the construction industry. Orla Hegarty of UCD has said that a self-builder or developer is effectively appointing someone to police him or herself, while the appointed person does not have to be independent of the process and has no legal powers. Under the current system, there is absolutely no guarantee that the assigned certifier under the 2014 regulations must be independent of the developer. He or she can still be an employee of the developer and have other close links to the developer he or she is certifying. We do not accept self-regulation in the food industry or in regard to the protection of our environment. Why do we accept self-regulation in regard to the industry that builds one of the most important things in our lives, our homes?

The third set of recommendations relates to the need for substantial law reform. Since Fine Gael took office in 2011 there has been no substantive legislative reform to create new remedies for anyone who finds he or she is living in a defective house.

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I have been working with construction law expert Deirdre Ní Fhloinn in drafting new primary legislation to include robust legal remedies for homeowners from builders and those involved in the building process, and I hope to introduce it to the House before the end of this term.

The fourth and final set of recommendations relates to dealing with the legacy of defects in housing. In my constituency of Dublin Rathdown, there are developments where families are facing bills of up to €30,000 to rectify problems not of their making. These families are left with dangerously defective housing with no legal recourse to the corner-cutting cowboy builders who built shoddy homes in an unregulated environment and then sold them to unsuspecting homeowners. There is not even a phone number that they can ring to seek advice on the numerous frightening letters which they have received in recent weeks. They are terrified that boom era building defects will financially ruin them through no fault of their own.

The Government has been inactive on this issue, relying on the homeowners' fear that if they go public the value of their properties will be destroyed, putting them in further financial peril. This is not right, fair or just. Every time I have raised this issue with the Taoiseach and members of the Government, it has been dismissed as being entirely a matter between private parties to a private contract. The Minister did so again tonight. This is a public health issue brought about by an ineffective building control regime exploited by cowboy builders through the boom under the State's watch. Will it take a tragedy to occur or lives to be lost before the Government takes action?

Practical reliefs for people living in substandard and defective homes need to, and must, be considered in the upcoming budget. These can be simple and practical measures like property tax relief or expanding VAT relief on works, which will impose minimal cost on the Exchequer, particularly as the Government provides similar tax reliefs to developers. These people are not looking for a handout. They are asking for practical information and assistance. They are pleading that the Government not abandon them.

The Green Party motion on building standards and homeowner protection passed by the Dáil last year and the "Safe as Houses?" report we are debating today outline the measures Government can take. Inaction is no longer an option. The conversation on relief for these homeowners must not end with this debate today. It cannot be wrapped up and filed away on a shelf in Government buildings like so many other reports on which no action has been taken. These recommendations have the potential to improve things not just for the future but also for people dealing with defects in their homes right now.

The Minister said that he believes that the building control reform agenda and other initiatives under way provide a full and comprehensive roadmap to embedding a culture of real compliance with the construction industry. This report contains the roadmap for improving the position and lives of these homeowners. It is the real roadmap that Government needs to follow. Will the Minister please give a commitment tonight that he will at the very least explore all options for giving assistance to the many homeowners who are pleading for his help?

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