Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Michael Moynihan has covered most of the basics on the issue. I am sure we are all familiar with the television advertisement featuring Daniel O'Donnell warning us to use only registered installers. While it is a funny advertisement, it has the important message encouraging people to use registered gas installers and not to get untrained or unregistered tradesmen to do these important jobs. In this House in recent weeks, we have seen the dangers of leaks, but nothing is more serious than a leaky or deficient boiler.

As Deputy Moynihan said, in 2015 the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications report asked for pricing arrangements or subscriptions to the Register of Gas Installers of Ireland, RGI Ireland, to be reviewed. It was also recommended that the cost of the certificates issued for servicing appliances be reviewed to ensure they were equitable. Five years later, RGI Ireland is now increasing the cost of membership of RGI Ireland by 20% and the cost of certificates by 66%. If a plumber were to issue 50 certificates in a week, which I am told is a conservative estimate, that is an additional cost of €100 a week or €400 a month to that plumber, which is a significant price hike.

I fear that an increasing number of tradesmen may ignore the certification process leading to more unlicensed providers servicing boilers with the Daniel O'Donnell sketch becoming a reality. RGI Ireland estimates that approximately 15,000 unlicensed boiler or leak repair jobs are done every year. The decision by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities to increase membership and certification costs to this extent will have the adverse effect of driving increasing numbers of people to unlicensed individuals. While the Minister may have no role in overturning this decision, some other method of funding needs to be considered to avert this problem.

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