Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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741. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources further to Parliamentary Question No.1551 of 22 September 2015, if he will publish a list of all contractors who have been de-registered from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland register of contractors specifically due to substandard workmanship and failure to meet the terms of the scheme's quality assurance programme, while excluding the contractors who may have opted to leave the scheme for their own reasons; his views that it is in the public interest to distribute this information; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34065/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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As I stated in my response to the Deputy's question of 22 September, contractors are registered to provide construction services for the Better Energy Homes scheme operated by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) on the basis of a commitment to: undertake all works in accordance with the Technical Specification of the scheme; demonstrate their tax compliance and insurance cover; and the obligation to cooperate with the scheme's Quality Assurance programme. This programme has been designed to maintain high standards of contractor workmanship; build consumer confidence; monitor health and safety; and ensure proper governance of the spend of public money. A grant application to the Better Energy Homes scheme can only be completed when the homeowner selects a contractor currently on the SEAI register of contractors. Therefore, the public interest is served by the fact that homeowners availing of this scheme are prevented from engaging currently de-registered contractors to carry out grant aided works.

The SEAI has a responsibility to apply a prudent, practical and appropriate approach to the governance of the disbursement of the public funds. However, this responsibility is confined to the schemes operated by the SEAI. Therefore, the SEAI's remit for quality control of construction or retrofit practice is confined to its governance of the Better Energy Homes scheme and its operation of the register of contractors, which forms part of that governance arrangement. The SEAI does not have any quality control function with regard to the wider construction sector.

Therefore, the publication of a list of contractors de-registered from the scheme for non-compliance with the SEAI's very stringent Code of Practice could be incorrectly interpreted as construing a lack of capacity to carry out non-grant related building works, which may not be the case. Such a list might therefore be prejudicial to competition in the wider construction sector, the regulation of which is outside the remit of the SEAI.