Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will speak to amendment No. 6 in due course, but I will first speak to amendment No. 5 briefly because it directly relates to the general issue that is informing this debate. As Deputies Cian O'Callaghan and Ó Broin articulated, it should be obvious to everyone - it is obvious to everyone except the Department and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke - that the pre-eminent lobby group for the construction industry should not be where the registration body and responsibility for registration is housed. That should evidently be the case but, bizarrely, the Government has decided to house this extremely important registration body that will essentially regulate the standards and performance of the building industry in the very same organisation that lobbies quite effectively, as Deputy Cian O'Callaghan said, for that industry. It simply does not make sense. It is the equivalent of the banks regulating themselves. We know where poor regulation has got this country, and the impact of poor regulation on the many thousands of people who live in defective apartments that are awaiting the outcome of a process. We know the impact on people in Donegal who have been living in homes affected by mica and the distress that is causing. It is extraordinary, and it is unpalatable to me and to most right-thinking members of the public, that the Construction Industry Federation would be the body responsible for registration in this regard. It simply does not make sense.

I wish to speak to amendment No. 6. While Deputy Ó Broin is correct that the CIF is not explicitly referenced in the legislation, which is unusual in itself, all of the indicators point to the fact that it will operate the register. The reason I drafted the amendment in the way I have is that it directly references and relates to the Construction Industry Federation, because under the provisions of the Trade Union Acts 1871 to 1990, it is considered to be a trade union of employers and it has a negotiating licence. By accept the amendment, the Minister would be effectively excluding the Construction Industry Federation from the responsibility that this legislation will bestow on it.

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