Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I am inclined to agree with the principle of amendment No. 50 and we will come to that later. The completion not only of individual apartments but also of entire estates, including the communal areas, is a vexed issue. We also have the 5% retention issue. While, with the best will in the world, we would like to have a system to hold developers, that issue is fraught with difficulty. Primarily, completion must be dealt with by the local authorities, the planning authorities and the Department. There was a time local authorities issued certificates of compliance, but that is not the practice anymore and, therefore, the amendments would put a substantial administrative and resource requirement on local authorities. If that were not the case, the various architect representative groups would be in like a flash seeking that their members would provide the necessary certificates which, ultimately, wouldresult in additional expense being passed on to the consumer. We are looking to solve this some other way in the Lower House. We will be in more detailed discussion with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government in this regard.