Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No more than the Minister, I will not take up all of my time. He went to the core of the issues that I raised, which were primarily based on an individual in my county whom I know and who outlined to me the impact of these regulations countywide. I stand over the figure that the individual provided of just two people in the county being eligible to sign off on work.

I am particularly heartened by the Minister's attitude towards the professional bodies and by his assurance that he will monitor them so that they do not take advantage of the regulations. The figure of €40,000 to €50,000 was given to me by the individual concerned based on his assessment. I did not pluck it out of the air and I used it in good faith. It was the cost to a father and son who were building a house extension in a rural area of County Leitrim. I was given to understand that they would have to register as builders, but I hope I heard the Minister correctly when he stated that this would not be the case. That is reassuring.

My party and I fully support the overall thrust of what the Minister has said about shoddy development and the need to tighten up the regulations. I graciously acknowledge that is part of what he has been doing in this regard. I hope it will ensure that many of the bad examples of that nature that Senator Landy and others outlined will never happen again. What is the usual reaction when we see images from other parts of the world of buildings that have collapsed as a result of natural disasters in the Far East, for example? It is usually because of shoddy development, poor building regulations, etc. We never want that visited on this country and I applaud the Minister for having done that.

The core of what I am saying is that there are upwards of 500 professionals in this country who will be affected by this. This applies to my county. That is the figure I have been given and it seems to have been widely disseminated in this debate. I am heartened by what the Minister said. I got some indication that he was thinking along those lines to ensure there would be an ease of passage for those people and for the individual I am talking about who genuinely believes that his livelihood will be impaired. I do not want to single out anybody in particular, but Senator Keane knows who I am talking about because she met the individual concerned. I hope she gave him some comfort and reassurance in this regard because he will be out of work. She will know this because he put those arguments to her in very good faith.