John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Most people engage competent professionals to carry out due diligence in advance of purchasing a home, particularly a new home. The problem is that sometimes, as the Minister of State knows, the issues only come to light after purchase. Somebody can do all the due diligence in the world and the problem only comes to light some time after purchase. I want to acknowledge that while the CIF will essentially compile and operate the register, individual contractors have to apply through the federation to be on it. I am heartened by the fact that the Minister of State is appointing an independent board and that in the programme for Government we are committed to a building standards regulator. To re-emphasise, the problem is, with the builder in question here, there was just non-engagement. The builder did not engage with the residents in question. There are well over 300 units on this estate. I have not had a complaint other than from three or four residents. It is actually in the builder's interests to come back. This does not seem to be a wholesale problem or maybe I am beginning to open a can of worms. However, that is not my sense of it. The builder built many hundreds of houses in this particular area over the past 20 or 30 years and would have a good reputation and, therefore, actually it is in its own interest to remedy this.

The homeowners subsequently contacted HomeBond because it acts on behalf of the CIF, to try to remedy these issues. It, in turn, has not engaged with them in more than six months. The impression is that it is just running down the clock and then the houses will no longer be covered by the HomeBond scheme and nobody will be liable for anything except the homeowners who have to foot the bill. I thank the Minister of State for saying that we might touch base with him in the Department and see what he can do. He might outline what that might involve for the particular owners. I will correspond with him in the next 24 to 48 hours on it. I thank him for that offer.

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