Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Fáiltím roimh an deis píosa cainte a dhéanamh faoin mBille seo, is é sin an Bille um Cheadúnú Sábháilteachta Foirgníochta. Is Bille thar a bheith tábhachtach é, le 60 leathanach agus 63 mír laistigh de naoi gCuid. Is Bille téagartha é i ndáiríre agus tá sceideal ann freisin a chlúdaíonn na gníomhaíochtaí atá faoi chaibidil againn agus a bheidh ann faoin gcóras nua. Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis an tSeirbhís Leabharlainne agus Taighde freisin as an digest a réitigh sí dúinn chun an Bille a mhíniú.

Mo bhuíochas don Roinn agus don Aire as an obair atá déanta acu. Is Bille thar a bheith tábhachtach é seo agus nuair a bheidh sé i bhfeidhm, beidh córas iomlán nua i gceist ó thaobh an chórais oiliúna de. Beidh údarás nua ann agus beidh an t-údarás sin ilfheidhmeach ó thaobh a lán rudaí, go háirithe ó thaobh aitheantas a thabhairt d’oibrithe ó thaobh na gcáilíochtaí de. Beidh siad siúd in ann gearáin a fháil agus beidh córas achomharc i gceist freisin. Ní bheidh idirdhealú a thuilleadh idir oibrithe a oibríonn san earnáil tógála agus iad siúd a oibríonn sa chóras cairéil agus is maith an rud é sin. Tá sé thar a bheith tábhachtach mar tá an Bille seo dírithe ar chúrsaí sábháilteachta agus ar chúrsaí sláinte. Chun é sin a chur i gcomhthéacs, ní mór dom na figiúirí ón Údarás Sláinte agus Sábháilteachta a lua. Dúradh linn sna figiúirí sin gur cailleadh seachtar in 2022 agus dúradh linn go bhfuil an t-údarás ar an eolas gurb é an earnáil tógála ceann de na hearnálacha is baolaí. Idir 2011 agus 2014, cailleadh 153 duine san earnáil tógála. In 2021, d’fhulaing beagnach 800 duine san earnáil seo. Cuireann sé sin an rud i gcomhthéacs. Tá an Bille seo thar a bheith tábhachtach dúinne mar thír agus don earnáil tógála, ach níl i gceist anseo ach gné amháin ón méid atá ag teastáil. B’fhéidir nach mbeidh deis agam dul ar ais go dtí an córas printíseachta roimh dheireadh mo phíosa cainte, ach fáiltím roimh an Bille seo.

I very much welcome the Bill. I will avoid trying to repeat what I have just said in Irish, but it is important to thank the Library & Research Service, as usual, for providing a very good digest, the Department for its work and the Minister. This is an extremely important Bill that has health and safety at its core. I hope that that will materialise in reality and that it will not be a bureaucratic - I will not say "maze", but I hope it will do the job it is supposed to do. It will be essential to see a review of it in due course.

The Bill comes from a long history. The general scheme was published in October 2022. The pre-legislative scrutiny was waived. I am always worried when I see that happen because it is a very important opportunity for things to be teased out, but the committee made that decision.

As regards the regulatory impact analysis, I will be gone when the Minister of State gives his closing speech, unfortunately, but he might clarify this for the record. A regulatory impact analysis, RIA, is carried out for every Bill, as I understand it, but the library has pointed out that the RIA for this Bill was not published. I am not sure why that RIA was not published. It was given to the library on the basis that it would be given to us but that we could not share it. That seems like something out of - I do not know what it is out of, but is there a reason for that? I have read it and I see nothing in it that cannot be shared, yet a decision was made that it would not be published. Perhaps the Minister of State could clarify that, particularly when pre-legislative scrutiny was waived.

On top of that, going back to 2017, we had what is known as the BearingPoint report. The Department knows more about this than I do, but that was in 2017 and it identified a number of issues: the resurgence of activity in the construction sector; the continued growth of the workforce in the coming five years; the changing nature and make-up of the construction industry workforce; the emergence of new equipment, techniques and methods that were not addressed in current legislation and are still not; and the need to facilitate the mobility of the EU workers in this sector. I know that the recognition of qualifications from other countries is part of this Bill. The authors of the report pointed out back in 2017, six years ago, that the legislation was dated and was limiting opportunities for process and programme improvements and that there was a misalignment between the existing accreditation system and the Further Education and Training Awards Council, FETAC, awards. That is being sorted out, I hope, with this Bill. The authors pointed to a loss of key staff, which has been referred to repeatedly, in specialist skills within the construction services unit of the Department and subsequent capacity to meet increasing demands.

Following the publication of the BearingPoint report, an independent technical working group was established. It reported on how to progress the review's recommendations and, again, found that the current legislative system was dated and did not reflect technological and sectoral changes. There was, however, still a delay because, on foot of that, a general scheme was drafted but the work was paused pending the creation of the Minister of State's Department.

That is the background. We have got to where we are today with a Bill that, it is to be hoped, will sort out this sector by improving health and safety on building sites and in quarries, and that is to be welcomed. I also welcome that there is no longer a distinction between workers in the construction sector and workers who deal with quarries and so on. The Schedule to the Bill sets out the areas that are covered. As I understand it, we are not talking about craft workers here; we are talking about non-craft workers, and the various areas are clearly set out.

I wish to look also at apprenticeships. As regards Galway City Council, of which I was a proud member for 17 years, I could not say how many apprenticeships it has at the moment. Indeed, I could not say how many workers it has, if it has any left, in respect of maintenance and housing. I live in Claddagh. I will not single out any area. There are houses empty and no workers to carry out works on them. They are waiting for the houses to be bundled together so they can go out to a private company. A particular house I am thinking of has now been empty for three years. I see Deputy Mairéad Farrell nodding. She knows all the houses there. We are not talking about three or four weeks' turnover or even six months' turnover; we are talking about years and the houses are empty. Right in the centre of town the houses are empty. They were identified as houses to be done up or "artisan dwellings". That never happened, of course. I am particularly careful to praise staff. I see how hard they work in local authorities, shoved from department to department, but I find it increasingly difficult to stand over the lack of vision and management in various local authorities, including my own. We talk about empty houses. I see at any given time between 80 and 100 houses empty in Galway and I ask what has happened. We have lost our skilled workers. We have not given opportunities for those on the ground to upskill - and they want to upskill. We have not built up knowledge. That was one of the gaps identified in the report on the analysis of skills for residential construction and retrofitting: the absence of skilled workers and the absence of opportunities to train. I am just using Galway City Council as an example; I am sure the county council is in the same boat but I just do not have the exact figures on that.

I despair to watch a council lose skilled staff, losing every opportunity to upskill them and to be visionary and to lead on empty houses. It is not good for any city to have empty houses. We are told repeatedly that they are a minute percentage of the overall housing stock. That is not a satisfactory answer. If I were there, I would ask what staff we need and how many carpenters, plumbers and new apprentices with new skills in retrofitting we need to deal with this. For the life of me I cannot understand this. I come from a practical background, even though I did not go into a practical career, and I have no idea how this could be allowed to build up, except that part of it was the complete denigration of people who did not go to university and the highlighting and the promoting of IT skills and other skills while we look down gradually on teachers but always on the trades, when we should have been doing the exact opposite. I am talking about skilful people with the ability to solve problems. If we had learnt from them, we would not have got the country into the mess it went into. Notwithstanding that we are talking about transformative change that is necessary as a result of climate change and Covid, I see no evidence of that. I see the old thinking all the time and not transformative change.

Going back to Galway, what if we were seriously interested in dealing with the housing emergency?

It is worse than Dublin. I am on record for saying it is worse than Dublin and yet no significant actions have been taken with regard to tackling that issue. A committee was set up - a task force - over three years ago because of the emergency. It failed to produce a report. I thought that within that report we would have identified the absence of skills and the need for apprenticeships in possibly every public body, certainly in a city and county council, and a whole range of things to show what is possible. None of that has happened.

I will finish by saying I welcome the Bill. It is one tiny aspect with regard to what is needed in terms of apprenticeships. Indeed, that report identifies really huge figures with regard to what is necessary. It points out that there was a drop of more than 300 between 2022 compared with 2021 when the number of apprenticeships went down. That is notwithstanding the work the Minister of State has done, which I acknowledge. Registration is down from 8,607 to 8,286. Of the registrations in 2022, 68% were in construction. The Government's strategy is to achieve 10,000 registrations every year by 2025 as part of its strategy to tackle the housing crisis. That is not happening. We have not reached that figure. Certainly, however, it requires a hands-on approach with regard to local authorities and CEOs, who I prefer to call city managers because I believe they are there to serve the people. They should be asked what they are doing with regard to apprenticeships and housing.

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