Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 58: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government his plans to amend the Building Control Act to address the situation facing trained and qualified architects who are effectively being prevented from registering to use that title due to the excessive registration fee; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5582/11]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I have no plans to amend the Building Control Act 2007 along the lines suggested.

Part 3 of the Act enables eligible persons engaged in the provision of architectural services to register for the use of the title architect. The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI) has been designated as the registration body for the purposes of Part 3 of the Act.

A number of routes to registration are provided for in sections 14, 15, 16 and 22 of the Act having regard to the differing approaches to gaining the requisite knowledge, skills and experience adopted by individual applicants. Section 22, in particular, includes a provision to address the position of a category of practically trained persons who had already been providing architectural services in Ireland commensurate with those understood as being provided by architects for the purpose of the Building Control Act 2007 for a period of ten years at the time the Act became law. This provision is transitional in nature and enables this category of persons to become registered once they have been assessed as eligible for registration by the Technical Assessment Board in accordance with the practical experience assessment procedure.

Taken in their totality the various routes to registration provided for under Part 3 of the Act represent a registration process that is open, fair and transparent.

Section 62 deals with the specification of registration fees and, importantly, requires that a fee specified must not in any case exceed the total of the costs in providing the services for which the fee is paid and the reasonable costs incurred by the registration body in collecting, accounting for and administering the fee. I understand that the registration body has confirmed that the recommended fees are in line with the requirements of section 62.

The Act does not seek to regulate the function or role of architects. Its purpose rather is to provide statutory protection of the title architect so that only those who are suitably qualified and registered will be lawfully entitled to use the title. Eligible persons who decline to register can continue to practice architecture and provide architectural services but they cannot use the title architect or sign certificates to that effect.

Registration is not obligatory and the decision by eligible persons to seek registration, now or at a future date, will typically be made having regard to commercial considerations based on each individual's own assessment of their existing business potential and the additional business opportunities they anticipate that registration may bring.