asked the Minister for the Environment when the draft building regulations catering for the disabled will be brought before the Dáil.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Building Regulations.
14.
Before the building regulations can be brought into force it is necessary to enact amending legislation to provide for a more flexible system of control to administer the regulations than that originally envisaged, and also to enable the regulations to be used to promote energy conservation in building and to allow for the implementation of proposed EEC directives with implications for building control regulations. The preparation of the necessary legislation is well advanced and will be introduced as soon as possible with a view to having building regulations in force by 1983.
Can the Minister indicate if the legislation will provide for the certification of architects or, alternatively, for the registration of architects or of other people suitably qualified to administer the regulations?
It will so provide.
Can the Minister confirm my understanding that this legislation will have gone through both Houses either before the end of 1982 or sometime in 1983?
It is hoped to introduce the legislation in October or November next.
(Cavan-Monaghan): Am I right in thinking that there have been draft building regulations before the Department for some time? Can the Minister indicate for how long this has been the position?
An amended version of the draft building regulations was published on 31 March 1981. I do not know for how long they have been in force.
(Cavan-Monaghan): Is it not the position that these draft building regulations were prepared several years ago, have not come into force and are awaiting action on the part of the Minister?
I am unable to give that information offhand.
They were prepared in 1976.
(Cavan-Monaghan) For the purpose of identifying them, those draft regulations involve hundreds of pages. I think they were prepared in 1976 but have not been ruled on.
I will have that matter looked into.
15.
asked the Minister for the Environment when he proposes to introduce building regulations which will ban the use of highly flammable materials in the construction of new buildings.
Before the building regulations can be brought into force it will be necessary to enact amending legislation to provide for a more flexible control system than that originally envisaged and also to enable the regulations to be used to promote energy conservation in building and to allow for the implementation of proposed E.E.C. directives with implications for building regulations. The preparation of the necessary legislation is well advanced and will be introduced as soon as possible with a view to having building regulations in force by 1983.
Building regulations are written in terms of performance requirements which, in so far as danger from fire is concerned, minimise the risk. Only materials which enable these performance requirements to be met will be permitted to be used in the construction of a building. It is intended to make provision in the proposed legislation for the banning of unsafe materials should the need arise.
Though these regulations have been in force since 1981, is the Minister aware that even to date there is a total absence of building standards and that builders are embarking on new projects while using unsafe materials while we are powerless to do anything about the situation? On the occasion of a tragedy lip service is paid by Minister to the need for proper standards but no action is taken. Would the Minister ensure that the regulations in relation to flammable materials are taken out of the overall regulations and brought before the House immediately?
I appreciate the point being made but I would prefer to deal with all the regulations in one piece of legislation. I would point out though that local authorities have been informed that they should ensure that all materials used in the building of houses are safe from the point of view of constituting a fire risk. I have not received correspondence from any individual or organisation to indicate that these instructions are not being complied with.
The position is that the regulations cannot be enforced. Is the Minister aware that at a seminar held in March this year by the IIRS, the present regulations were described as incomplete and incomprehensible? Therefore, anticipating the next question, would the Minister be prepared to re-draft the regulations published in 1981?
As I said earlier this whole question is being considered. I presume the Deputy is referring to local authority housing.
I am not.
He is talking, then, in a general context but no details have been brought to my notice of any case in which materials that constitute a fire risk are being used. If the Deputy has details of any such case——
I have.
——and if he will let me have the details, I will have it examined.
Is the Minister aware that the IIRS are suffering from a serious lack of finance in regard to the testing of these materials and that both builders and manunfacturers of building materials are put to the expense of having the products tested in Britain because of the lack of the necessary facilities here?
No complaints to that effect have been brought to my notice either. So far as local authority and NBA housing is concerned I am satisfied regarding the materials used and indeed I should like to put on record also that I have attended at a number of openings of private housing developments and I am glad to say that the standard of materials used in these cases is exceptionally high. I should not like the impression to go out from this House that anybody connected with the house building industry was using materials of a flammable nature.
I am tempted to respond to the last hope expressed by the Minister but I shall resist. In view of the fact that there has been considerable discussion between the various interests in the building industry regarding the administration of these regulations, can the Minister say whether the heads of the Bill designed to provide for the legal implementation of the regulations have been circulated to the Cabinet and agreed?
They have been circulated to the various Departments but not yet to the Cabinet.
Can the Minister say if agreement has been reached by all of the representative sections within the industry regarding the method and system of the implementation and administration of the regulations?
So far as I am aware negotiations with all the interested parties have been satisfactory.
Will the Minister agree——
This is the eighth supplementary on this question.
I appreciate that but it would facilitate the House very much if in future we could avoid arguments concerning legislation a Minister intends introducing by way of his giving an assurance that all the sections who are to be involved in administering the legislation have been properly consulted and have agreed to what is being proposed.
Some of the parties concerned have expressed reservations in regard to the legislation in question. It may be difficult to reach agreement with everybody concerned but we hope to be able to reach what we call a satisfactory conclusion.
But the Minister is not aware whether that situation has been reached?
We hope to be able to sort out the reservations that have been expressed.
One very brief supplementary.
(Interruptions.)
I cannot hear above the noise from supplementaries.
Especially from my own area.
Arising out of the Minister's reply, with regard to builders I am certain that everybody in the House is agreed that the builders adhere to the regulations and do much outstanding work and nobody is casting any slur on them. However, they are experiencing difficulty in regard to having items used in their work tested. Will the Minister of State give an assurance that the IIRS will be able to carry out the necessary testing on materials when demanded?
Yes, as far as I know. My information is that anything they are asked to do in that line they do it.
16.
asked the Minister for the Environment if he proposed to re-draft the building regulations which were introduced in 1981.
No significant redrafting of the draft Building Regulations published in 1981 is proposed.
I am surprised at the Minister's reply. Is he aware of a proposal that was passed at a meeting of the IIRS in March of this year to the effect that the language of the regulations is imprecise and downright unintelligible? In the light of that statement from the institute will he now consider a complete redrafting of the regulations? Also, since the regulations are so imprecise, will his Department embark on an educational programme for builders and the allied trades?
Some minor alterations in the regulations will be proposed. In regard to the terms, the Deputy can take it that the building regulations we propose to bring before the House will be comprehensive and will deal with all the items. If anything arises when they come before the House in regard to amendments and so on I or the Minister will be very sympathetically disposed if it is in the interests of doing a good job.
In order to have a good job done will the Minister of State agree that, if the regulations are to be administered by a system of self-certification and the people who certify that they have complied with the building regulations will in law be liable for anything that goes amiss as a consequence, it is absolutely essential that those regulations can be interpreted clearly by the person who has to certify them and by a subsequent court in the event of a civil action? Will he agree that the view expressed by the IIRS and by many other people is that at the moment in their current form the building regulations are vague and imprecise and open to different kinds of interpretation, which could lead to a disastrously complicated set of legal actions and would be counter-active to the purpose for which the building regulations were drawn up?
If the regulations are to have effect they must be given legal power, and I expect that they will have that power.
I am trying to say, and I think Deputy Allen tried to say, what the institute have said, that in their present form the draft building regulations are vague and imprecise, and that the Minister of State has the power to clarify that ambiguity. He is being asked in this House if he will do so.
Yes. The answer is that the Deputy can be assured of that.
I thank the Minister of State.
Does the Minister of State know how many inspectors are employed by his Department for the purpose of ensuring that the building regulations are being complied with?
That is a separate question. I have not the information but if I had it I would be able to give it.
Is the Minister of State saying that some steps are being taken to ensure that the regulations are being enforced?
That is a separate question.