The ongoing failure to act demonstrates that the Government has learned nothing from the disastrous impact of construction defects
Today the Minister for Housing, Darragh O’Brien, has published a report on building defects in apartments and duplexes. There are a series of urgent actions the Government must now take, according to Social Democrats Housing Spokesperson Cian O’Callaghan.
“The lack of action to date by the Government to hold developers to account for the billions of euros of building defects displays an attitude of complete indifference to the thousands of families that have been impacted.
“The Government must act to hold those responsible to account and make them responsible for the costs of remediation.
“I’m calling on the Minister for Housing to;
1. Introduce mandatory latent building defects insurance for all developers.
“This would mean that people who buy homes that are defective would be fully covered in the event of substandard work emerging. It would also result in repeat offenders being put out of the industry as they would no longer be able to get insured.
“Earlier this year the Government opposed an amendment that I tabled to the Regulation of Providers of Building Works Bill that sought to make latent defects insurance mandatory.
2. Establish an independent regulator of the Construction Industry.
“Given the billions of euros of defects, it is utterly unjustifiable that the regulation of the building industry is being run by the Construction Industry Federation on behalf of the State. This cannot be allowed to continue. A fully independent regulator of the sector is needed as a matter of urgency.
3. Close down the quarries that are still producing defective materials that are going into homes.
“It is shocking that quarries that are producing sub-standard and defective materials are allowed to continue to operate.
“This is only leading to more defects that will have to be remediated in the future. These quarries should be closed as a matter of urgency.
4. Establish a national Building Control Regulatory Authority to ensure the effective enforcement of the Building Regulations.
5. Change company law so that the directors of companies responsible for defective building can be pursued and held to account.
“If we are to avoid more and more costly building defects in the future the Government must act now to hold those responsible to account.
“The ongoing failure to act demonstrates that the Government has learned nothing from the disastrous impact of construction defects over the last number of years.”
28 July, 2022
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