Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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522. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of the creation of the Building Standards Regulatory Authority; the role and powers of the authority; if it will be part of An Bord Pleanála; when the legislation will be scheduled for debate; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7645/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Last year, my Department established a Building Standards Regulator Steering Group. The report of this group is available in full on the Department's website at the following link: .

The Steering Group recommended that the Building Standards Regulatory Authority should:

a. be an independent central competent authority, with the powers of a national Building Control Authority, and national Market Surveillance Authority for construction products.

b. ensure implementation of relevant building control and construction product legislation through a combination of agreed funded services contracts with Local Authorities acting on its behalf and directly itself.

c. act as a centre of best practice driving, promoting and fostering compliance, competency and consistency in building control and market surveillance systems and the construction industry.

Government approval was received to draft a general scheme to establish this Regulatory Authority. Given that the enactment of primary legislation is likely to take a significant amount of time, approval has also been given, in parallel to the enactment of primary legislation, to establish a body under the Local Government Services (Corporate Bodies) Act, 1971 to be known as the Building Standards Agency. The purpose of establishing this corporate body is to expedite the development of appropriate governance and management structures, as well as to increase inspection capacity by recruiting competent technical staff to support Local Authorities.

My Department is in the process of drafting both pieces of legislation and will work in partnership with the County and City Management Association to implement the recommendations of the report.

It is not currently envisaged that the Building Standards Agency or the Building Standards Regulatory Authority will be a part of An Bord Pleanála or An Coimisiún Pleanála as the case may be.