Defects: Living With the Legacy of the Celtic Tiger by Eoin Ó Broin

Author:Eoin Ó Broin [Broin, Eoin Ó]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: law, Housing & Urban Development, Technology & Engineering, Construction, General, history, Europe, Ireland, political science
ISBN: 9781785373985
Google: fzU4EAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Merrion Press
Published: 2021-07-12T00:00:00+00:00

The 26th Dáil – Minister for the Environment Pádraig Flynn

Committee Stage of the Building Control Bill was finally completed in a marathon session on 29 November 1989. In contrast to the previous meetings, Fine Gael played a significant part in proceedings through their Dublin South TD Alan Shatter. Committee dealt with fourteen separate amendments to the government’s own amended Section 6, none of which were accepted.

Deputy Shatter’s main contributions to the debate focused on two key areas. He wanted to ‘ensure that the individuals involved in the designing and construction of the building are not the people who do the necessary certification’.41 In addition he wanted local authorities to have a duty to ‘ensure that the certificate of compliance complies with the requirements of the Act’.42

Minister Flynn rejected what he termed ‘third party certification’ on the grounds that it would ‘impose a layer of cost similar to that pertaining to the local authority system’ and that it would result in project delays, particularly for complex projects.

The new Workers’ Party Environment spokesperson, Eamon Gilmore TD, continued his party’s strident opposition to self-certification. ‘The principal being enshrined in this section is very dangerous,’ he said. ‘It will expose people who are buying homes to buying products which are substandard against which they will have no comeback.’43

Again the minister rejected the opposition’s arguments, claiming that builders and developers would ‘only be able to continue in business as long as they have good quality work as their trade mark’.44 Flynn was adamant that he did ‘not believe that anything in this Bill will expose home buyers to the possibility of buying a sub-standard building’.45

As the meeting ground on, Minister Flynn and Deputy Gilmore continued to tussle over the level of protection for the home buyer where the property was to prove defective. The minister was insistent that the system as proposed incentivised both the builder and architect-certifier to comply with the building regulations, to ensure their good reputations.

Gilmore asked, ‘Suppose there was a rogue builder and architect, that the certificate of compliance does not hold up and the defect in the building does not emerge until I happen to buy it, what comeback would I have?’46

In response Flynn said, ‘I cannot for the life of me understand the Deputy’s preoccupation with rogue builders, certifiers and architects’, to which Gilmore shot back, ‘I come across a lot of them.’47

In one of the debate’s most revealing remarks, Minister Flynn stated, ‘If Deputy Gilmore buys a building without having put in place some checks … then he is the one who is being negligent in protecting his own investment.’48

The substantive debate was over. The government had the numbers, and once the opposition amendments to the government’s revised Section 6 were disposed of, the committee proceeded with the remainder of the technical amendments. Two weeks later, on Wednesday 13 December, the report and final stages of the bill were completed in the Dáil. It was then sent to the Seanad, where its passage was swift, concluding on 15 March 1990.

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