Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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131. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if a new residential development has to be fully compliant with schedule 2 of the building regulations to attain a certification of compliance and a certificate of completion; and if it is possible to be partly non-compliant, excluding those for which there is an exemption attained with some standard before a building can be legally occupied as a residential dwelling. [22519/17]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Under the Building Control Acts 1990 to 2014, primary responsibility for compliance with the requirements of the Building Regulations rests with the designers, builders and owners of buildings.  Enforcement of the Building Regulations is a matter for the 31 local building control authorities, who have extensive powers of inspection and enforcement in the event of breaches of the Building Control Regulations.

In response to the many building failures that have emerged over the past decade, my Department introduced the (S.I. No. 9 of 2014), which require greater accountability in relation to compliance with Building Regulations in the form of statutory certification of design and construction by registered construction professionals and builders, lodgement of compliance documentation, mandatory inspections during construction and validation and registration of certificates.

Article 20F of the Building Control Regulations provides that a Certificate of Compliance on Completion shall be submitted to a building control authority and be included on the register before works or a building may be opened, occupied or used. There is no such thing as a 'Completion Certificate' under the Building Control Regulations.

A Certificate of Compliance on Completion is jointly signed by the builder and the assigned certifier. This must be accompanied by plans and documentation to show how the constructed building complies with the building regulations and also the inspection plan, as implemented.

In effect, the statutory Certificate of Compliance on Completion certifies that a building is compliant with all relevant requirements of the Building Regulations.