Jim Higgins (Fine Gael)

I compliment and thank all of the Members who have participated in this debate. This is the first Private Members' Bill introduced to this Seanad and I feel it is one that should have been adopted unanimously. It is a life and death issue and the Government has shilly-shallied on it for far too long.

Mention has been made of the inter-departmental group set up under the chairmanship of the former president of Dublin City University, Professor Danny O'Hare. The review group identified one issue in relation to which more immediate action is required – the regulation of the electrical contracting industry. That was 20 months ago and there has been no tangible or visible action since then. The comments could not have been more graphic or more challenging. If the situation was bad in July 2000, it is just as bad now.

As we all know, houses are being built at an enormous rate by people without any qualifications. Some could almost be described as cardboard houses. All Members are aware that people without an apprenticeship, with six or nine months' experience of working with a building contractor, suddenly appear in a 2003 van marked "John Murphy – Electrical Contractor" and give an 087 telephone number. Such people know as much about electrical contracting as a pig knows about a clean shirt, as a man used to say. The fact that electricity can be lethal has been mentioned in this debate.