Michael Kitt (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and congratulate Senator Coghlan and his colleagues for producing this Bill. Senator Coghlan has outlined well in the explanatory memorandum the way stage payments arise. He gives an example of two types of house purchase transactions. The first, with which most people in rural Ireland would be familiar, is where an individual arranges with a builder to construct a house and stage payments are made as the work proceeds. The second is where stage payments relate to houses built in housing estates. In the first instance, dates are arranged for the payments. In the second case, a 10% contract deposit is paid with the 90% balance paid on completion of the house. In the past, the purchase of these houses was often funded through stage payments but that practice appears to have disappeared in most areas of the country, apart from Cork, as other speakers said.

The ending of stage payments would be welcome. I was interested to hear the Minister of State say he was trying to do this in a voluntary way. Nobody wants purchasers to have to make extra financial payments where houses are being built. I would like stage payments to be ended as quickly as possible.

The Minister of State mentioned his discussions with the Construction Industry Federation and said that the Cork members met with the national IHBA yesterday, 27 June. I hope its members will accept the Cork recommendation. I do not know if there has been any response on that and I would like to hear an update in that regard because if the problem is just in Cork and some other areas of the south west, it is important those areas be dealt with in the same way as the rest of the country.

The code of practice of the Irish Home Builders Association the Minister of State spoke about is welcome. One of the difficulties is that this is a voluntary professional code, which does not have any statutory effect or recognition. I understand that 80% of house builders subscribe to the code and if that figure is correct, we have gone some way to achieving full compliance and it is a only question of getting the other 20% to comply. Full compliance is what we all want to achieve as we go forward on this issue.

The Minister of State referred to a High Court ruling in December 2001 on a case taken by the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs. That ruling came out strongly against the practice of stage payments but was without prejudice to the propriety or impropriety of stage payments.

The most important issue now is the voluntary phasing out of stage payments. The Minister of State mentioned the case in regard to one-off housing. The only issue in that regard was stage payments but as we all know many other issues arise in regard to service charges and, for example, archaeological reports which must be obtained on many houses. I would point out to the Minister of State that there is a shortage of archaeologists, particularly in County Galway, to do such reports.

Another issue that arises is in regard to national safety audits, which are causing problems. I inquired recently about the number of personnel available to Galway County Council to do safety audits and was told there were three companies, all in Galway city. It costs €2,500 to €3,000 for a safety audit to be carried out. Those are the type of requirements that increase the cost of building a house to a point where it turns out to be much more expensive than many purchasers expected.

The Minister of State said that Cork CIF has agreed to enter discussions with the Department on the voluntary phasing out of the practice of stage payments at an early date. That is a significant development which I hope will end the practice of stage payments as soon as possible.

What we are discussing tonight is the provision of legislation by way of this Private Members' Bill. The Minister of State said the Bill is not appropriate and mentioned two items of legislation in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. One is the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Bill 2006, which has begun its Stages in the Seanad. The other is the legislation relating to a national property services regulatory authority. I hope these legislative measures could be dealt with quickly in this House.

While the issue of stage payments is important, it is not the only issue causing difficulty for people acquiring a house. We have had debates here in the past, and I hope we will have them in the future, on planning because planning was something on which the Minister, Deputy Roche, put much emphasis. It is obviously down to interpretation when it comes to actually achieving planning permission. It is an issue I should like to see both the Minister and the Minister of State refer to in this House, again. I hope we will have another debate on it.

Apart from planning some positive developments are happening. I understand we now have six years supply of serviced residential land, nationally. That is very welcome. I can speak with some authority about County Galway where affordable housing is very well supported. There are designated people in the housing authority who are available for any member of the public who wants to talk about affordable housing. I hope, also that the issues as regards Part V can be resolved. This House has discussed, and Senator Ryan referred in passing to, some problems about where the 20% affordable housing is provided in a county or particular town. There are positive aspects which should not be forgotten about. It is not just a matter of saying stage payments are the problem. They certainly are one aspect of the problem, but there are other challenges, too, that we should be able to meet. Hopefully we will have a chance to debate them in the weeks and months ahead.