John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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630. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the steps he has taken to ensure that the developers of defective apartment complexes built during the boom are prevented from constructing homes in the future; the penalties that have been levied on these developers; the new regulations and laws that have been introduced to safeguard home buyers from purchasing homes in such complexes that will suffer from the same building flaws in the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13872/18]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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In general, building defects are matters for resolution between the contracting parties involved, the homeowner, the builder, the developer and/or their respective insurers, structural guarantee or warranty scheme. It is important to note that while my Department has overall responsibility for establishing and maintaining an effective regulatory framework for building standards and building control, it has no general statutory role in resolving defects in privately owned buildings, including dwellings, nor does it have a budget for such matters.

 In this regard, it is incumbent on the parties responsible for poor workmanship and/or the supply of defective materials to face up to their responsibilities and take appropriate action to provide remedies for the affected homeowners.

Under the Building Control Acts 1990 to 2014, primary responsibility for compliance of works with the requirements of the Building Regulations rests with the owners, designers and builders 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 under the Acts and who are independent in the use of their statutory powers.

Stronger compliance with building standards and the broader building control reform agenda are key priorities for Government. In particular, the Government has committed to placing the Construction Industry Register Ireland (CIRI), which was established on a voluntary basis in 2014, on a statutory footing. 

At the end of May 2017, the Government approved the draft heads of a Bill for this purpose, which was referred to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government for pre-legislative scrutiny. I received the Committee’s report on 14 December 2017 and I am considering its recommendations, with a view to progressing the drafting as soon as possible.

The main objective of the Building Control (Construction Industry Register Ireland) Bill is to develop and promote a culture of competence, good practice and compliance with the Building Regulations within the Builder community of the construction sector. The establishment of a robust, mandatory, statutory register of builders and specialist contractors is an essential consumer protection measure giving those who engage a registered builder the assurance that they are dealing with a competent and compliant operator. 

The General Scheme of the CIRI Bill requires that a builder demonstrate competence in the category of building works to which the registration relates. Competence is likely to be based on a number of factors including past experience. While no legislation can have retrospective effect and any breach of another statute must be prosecuted under the appropriate act, the Bill ensures that applicants declare any convictions under health & safety and/or building control legislation in any jurisdiction. 

The Bill will also allow for complaints against registered builders to be made on a number of grounds and provides for a range of proportionate sanctions to be imposed after investigation.

Sanctions may be imposed in respect of any breach of the requirements of registration including, where a registered member of CIRI failed, in connection with the carrying out of building work for which they are registered, to meet the standards of competence required for such registration.

This legislation will underpin the reforms which have been made through the Building Control (Amendment) Regulations and contribute to the development of a culture of competence and compliance in the construction sector.