Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I have to agree with that. There is nothing in the Minister of State's response that is in any way convincing on this. The one rationale given was that there is advice that we cannot name the entity in the legislation. Therefore, the Minister of State could accept amendment No. 6, which would prohibit the CIF and does not actually name the entity. He has told the Dáil and, frankly, I find this absolutely absurd, that the entity will be independent and it will be the Construction Industry Federation. Could you imagine a situation where there was a major problem in this country in respect of ethics around political parties, donations and fundraising to which the solution would be that political parties would regulate themselves on this, but there would be some legislation outlining how they would have an independent board and there would be parameters around that and so forth? That would not be acceptable to anyone.

This is utterly absurd after what we have gone through as a country on this. The proposal is that the people who will be in charge of regulating the industry will be in the industry itself. This is not any industry that just happens to have a few problems. The problems here have run incredibly deep. Yes, it is not everybody in the industry. Some of the biggest critics of the lack of regulation are themselves builders who are very annoyed at the shoddy standards that have been tolerated over the years. Councillor Deirdre Ní Fhloinn has pointed out there has never even been a conviction under the Building Control Acts, despite everything that has happened so far. We know that so far very few actions have been taken in terms of the voluntary register. We need a strong, robust, independent regulator. The notion that the industry lobby group would be independent and is the best place to do that is utterly absurd.

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