Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Bill and the opportunity to speak on it. The Bill's Title, the Regulation of Providers of Building Works Bill, does not give us a sense of the importance of it. Deputy Martin Kenny has just touched on an issue on which I will also speak. It gives us the sense, and the Acting Chair knows this from his constituency, that when building works go bad and there is no regulation the extent and level of human misery and human distress is unbelievable. I do not think any Bill or legislation can do anything to alleviate the problem because it has happened.

When we look at the history of this, particularly that part of it which occurred after the Celtic tiger era, we see the lack of this type of regulation and follow-up. We see the time we spent in the House over the years, and the Acting Chair is the only person in the House at present who was here with me at the time, dealing with ghost estates, levies for ghost estates and budgets for local authorities that were trying to deal with providing water, safety features in houses and housing estates and roads that were all supposed to have been provided. I wonder whether we have learned anything. The Bill suggests what e have learned a little, but can we guarantee that it will not all happen again as we start moving forward, ramping up and responding to housing need?

I welcome the Bill. I am intrigued as to why many of the powers in the Bill and the register will be under the watch of the CIF. I do not doubt the CIF, but independence would be welcome. I note the provisions in the Bill on a competent authority and a registration body. I am concerned that the Bill should not be used by the industry to justify price rises in an already very challenging area. The extra level of regulation should be borne by the industry.

When providers of building works run away from their responsibilities we have the situation with pyrite and mica that we have in my county and in Sligo, Donegal, Clare and many counties that probably do not know they have them. Many people have run away from their responsibilities on this. The suppliers of the bricks are providers of building works. There are others such as the insurance companies that would not pay out on insurance claims and now refuse to provide cover. Where did HomeBond go in all of this? The construction insurance scheme has completely reneged on its responsibilities to homeowners. The banks that have assets as part of the mortgages involved are doing nothing to support those assets. It all comes back on the State, which has to foot the bill.

I believe the scheme will turn out well. The Minister of State and his team are working incredibly hard on it. We will continue to work with them. If people have ideas, the Minister of State has shown himself to be very open to hearing them. There is a commitment in the defective block scheme to have an inquiry into how it happened. This will not alleviate the distress of 15 or 20 years. It can never be said enough that there are people who will look at tonight's weather forecast to see how windy or wet it may get so they will know what room in the house it is safe to sleep in and whether it is the bedroom or the living room. The provider of building works who caused this has got away scot-free. The provider of building works that made money on the back of that house and so many others has got away scot-free. The provider of building works who did very well during those times has left it to the State and the Government to alleviate the problem. This cannot be allowed to happen again.

The Bill is an opportunity to put regulations and provisions in place. We need to be as ambitious as possible with a view to ensuring that what is happening in Mayo, Donegal, Sligo, Clare and along the west coast does not happen again and a future generation of homeowners does not have to live with the stress caused. Homeowners in the east of the country are affected by pyrite in the foundations and fire safety defects in apartments. There is legislation on fire safety but there are apartments in this city that do not have adequate fire safety. Once again, it is the homeowners who are being asked to cough up for this.

Is the Department serious about its full role and about regulation? Does the Minister of State want another generation of Deputies and Senators to spend time in these Houses dealing with ghost estates and levies? We do not want to spend our time, as many of us have had to do, chasing down development levies and enforcement. The Minister of State is from a rural area. Does planning enforcement happen? I do not expect the Minister of State to comment but unless local authorities get extra resources to do the follow-up required in the Bill, then the Bill is a show pony. High-level and high-profile enforcement is necessary. Otherwise the Bill will not fulfil what it needs to do and what it is intended to do. Otherwise the misery of homeowners will be replicated again and again.

The Bill cannot just be paper. It cannot just be aspirational. It has to have the power of the Oireachtas behind it and it has to be enforced. On Committee Stage, the Minister of State should be as ambitious as possible. He should remember that tonight, as a consequence of the failure of regulation of the providers of building works, families have to look at the weather forecast to decide whether they can sleep. People are on medication because they have had to decide whether they can live in their homes. A scheme from the Department had to include provision for mental health services because of the destruction done to families by bad regulation and bad supplies, for which the providers will never have to pay.

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