Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. Part of the difficulty is that regulations have not improved that much since the incidents many of us talked about. In fact, in many instances the problem was not the regulations but their lack of enforcement. What has changed is in respect of building processes? There is a new system of certification, which is an improvement on the system that was there before, although it is not to the satisfaction of many of us on this side of the House, but in respect of construction materials there has been no change to the enforcement regime whatsoever. While it would be more difficult for a Priory Hall, a Beacon South Quarter, a Belmayne or a Brú Na Sionna to happen today, it would not be impossible. I will explain why in a moment. For example, there is nothing in any aspect of building control regulation enforcement that would today prevent more defective blocks from emerging, such as we have in counties Donegal, Mayo, Sligo, Tipperary and Clare.

The central problem, however, is the bad reputation of a small but significant section of the construction industry, which we all know about, and the fact there are contemporary examples of that which have been discussed at some length in the committee on housing, such as Larkfield House in my constituency in Clondalkin, a building of 48 apartments recently built and tenanted with no compliance with planning or building control. There has not been a single certificate of commencement, of completion, of fire safety, of disability, all of which are criminal offences under the Building Control Acts. Despite the fact that building is fully tenanted, the State is paying two thirds of the rent through the housing assistance payment, HAP, and enforcement proceedings against the development in that instance are operating at a snail's pace. We have a big problem to clean up and locating a register such as this in the primary lobby organisation for that industry makes no sense.

I will conclude by saying again that nothing the Minister of State said has justified why this register should be in the Construction Industry Federation. If the only part of his comment was that the registration authority should be competent at building, there are many other organisations, such as the National Building Control Office that should be. I have yet to hear an argument why. That is why I will press the amendment.

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