Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House again to discuss this issue. It is a case of déjÀ vu because on 16 June 2004 I spoke in the House on the first outing of Senator Coghlan's Bill. A pretty clear indication was given by the Government at the time through the Minister of State with responsibility for housing that something would happen on this. Here we are two years later. The Minister of State has taken a letter he received from the Cork branch of the Construction Industry Federation only last week and informed the House that two years after the Bill's first outing, the federation has now signed up to a voluntary code of practice. We are all supposed to be jumping up and down and acclaiming this as fantastic. I admire the Minister of State in many ways. His is a straight talking Dublin politician and we need more of those in Government.