Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 525: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the number of local authority building inspectors currently employed; the cost of employing one such inspector; the number of building inspectors required to achieve optimum compliance with existing building regulations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8670/07]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Under the Building Control Act 1990, enforcement of the building regulations is the responsibility of the 37 local building control authorities. Each of the authorities has a designated Building Control Officer with appropriate staff to carry out building control functions. Numbers vary depending on the size of the authority and the volume of construction activity; in addition, local authority fire services are involved in the administration of building regulations. The Department does not collect statistics on the number of building inspectors who report to the Building Control Officer. The local authority grade and pay of these officers varies from authority to authority.

Staffing requirements in local authorities are a matter for the County/City Manager concerned. However the County and City Managers Association has adopted the target, to be attained by local authorities generally, that at least 12% to 15% of buildings covered by valid commencement notices should be inspected by local authorities. I understand that in the half-year ended 30 June 2006 (the latest period for which completed data is available) all local authorities were carrying out inspections and some 35, or 95%, of these had reached the target level. A total of 10,600 inspections had been carried out of 9,800 buildings to ensure compliance with the building regulations.