Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

If this is a 20-minute slot, I will not take the full ten minutes. I thank the Minister of State and the Department for bringing this legislation before the House. Registration and regulation in any industry and sector is to be welcomed and it is a positive move. It is positive for those engaged in construction and building work because it levels the playing field, with everybody operating at the same standard and regulated in the same way. There is no advantage for those who may try to take a shortcut through standards or do things in an ad hocor unregulated manner.

This is good for the consumer as well, particularly those who are having building work done or families that might move into a new home. They will know with some confidence that the construction worker or company they have engaged, depending on the scale of operation, is reputable, registered and regulated. That is positive and good for everybody. We will get better outcomes from that.

We need a lot of builders in this country. We need tradespeople. We certainly need to make construction a more attractive industry. Building work can be difficult. Sites are cold, the work is outdoors and conditions are not always great. There has, however, been a lot of improvement over the years. When health and safety regulations were brought in with the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act it certainly improved many of the standards in construction, including with regard to welfare and workers having representation in the area of safety. It also improved standards in how we monitor and manage sites and construction. For example, there are now weekly checks on scaffolding and checks after bad weather or after scaffolding has been altered. It addressed the operation of machinery. People had to have construction skills certificate to drive a machine. This was a positive move because it meant we only had proper competent people driving those machines. We had a building boom and there had been a lot of accidents with scaffolding, machinery and trenches collapsing.

The introduction of regulation for the industry was very positive. We want to see that throughout construction because we want to attract workers. We need builders as we have an ambitious target of building 33,000 houses per year over the next decade. We need workers to do that. We want them to stay in their jobs and we want those jobs to be regulated. We want people to have opportunities to start an apprenticeship or a trade and to work their way up. I note the legislation includes a section on continuing professional development. That is a positive move in any industry or any job as it gives people an opportunity and they can see a career path. It is not a case of workers coming in at one level and staying there until they are old enough to move one step up the scale. The job is based on competency and people have opportunities.

I have one concern, which is sometimes seen in the apprenticeship system, whereby the employer may have apprentices who are due to go to technical college, for example, Bolton Street or Kevin Street. If an employer is busy, he or she might hold the apprentice back and the apprentice does not get an opportunity to go to technical college at that level. We need to consider the pressures, including time pressures, on people in construction. We want more houses built and we want to achieve the target of 33,000 houses. We want high-energy efficiency standard houses. I would look at that part of it and consider the realism of sending somebody for continuing professional development, but also needing them on the job.

Many years ago, the electrical trade was regulated and a register of electrical contractors was brought in. This improved the standard of work being done. It meant that electricians coming into people's home were registered and had a registered number. If they did work, they had to certify that work and put their number to it. People always have traceability, paperwork and a trail. If we register builders and regulate construction in that way, it has to be a good thing.

Consumer confidence is another issue. As the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, is aware, we have an ambitious target to retrofit 500,000 homes. We need to do that but it is going to be tricky and difficult. We do not want so much competition but we want to ensure we have tradespeople and skilled people to do that work. That is hugely important.

Fuel prices are rising and the way to combat that, especially higher fossil fuel prices, is through highly energy efficient and highly insulated homes running on renewable energy. We need to harness the renewable energy opportunity we have in this country. Part of that involves the use of solar panels. I wanted to put a question to the Minister of State last night about solar panels but I did not get a chance to do it. We need to ramp up the fantastic opportunity solar power offers this country. I ask the Minister of State to look at the Bill before the Seanad at the moment because we need to ensure we harness solar power.

Reference was made to the Land Development Agency. I was quite comforted by the chairman designate of the LDA when he was before the committee recently. He spoke about the LDA's ambition and its ability to work at scale. The agency is tooling up and ramping up and has the personnel it needs. There is no limit on budgets and it has the budget to do this. It will deliver 100% public housing on public lands, which is an issue on which we took a very strong line. Some 75% of what the LDA produces will be cost rental.

According to some of the earlier contributions, nothing is being built. I note from the Housing For All quarter 4 update today that some of the figures are very comforting. During 2021, more than 30,000 homes were commenced and 39,000 planning applications were activated. Project Tosaigh was launched to accelerate the delivery of 5,000 units where planning permission had already been granted but not yet activated. That is a positive move. Every local authority has submitted a housing delivery action plan outlining the delivery of social and affordable housing for 2022 to 2026. More than 200 new staff have been approved for local housing authority delivery teams, and 24 additional posts have been sanctioned for An Bord Pleanála. All of this is an important part of the construction industry. It is a pipeline of housing that we need delivered and people so urgently need. It is public housing on public land, which will be affordable, high-energy rated and efficient. Of our current housing stock, about one third was built since the 1960s and standards were probably not great. We need to retrofit that and concentrate on those households that are most at risk of fuel poverty. We are doing that at the moment.

I welcome the Bill and the fact that we will have a registration body to regulate and administer the construction trade in order that it can deliver on the ambitious target we have for the housing we need, and on which we are delivering.

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