Almost 25% of councils fail to hit building inspection targets

Almost a quarter of local authorities failed to achieve target rates for the inspection of new buildings last year, according to a local government watchdog.

A new report by the National Oversight and Audit Commission found eight out of the country’s 31 city and county councils did not reach the minimum target for inspecting new buildings for which valid commencement notices had been received.

It also highlighted a continuing low level of inspection of rental properties with less than one in 12 subject to examination last year for compliance with safety regulations and minimum standards for rental accommodation.

A total of 19,771 registered rental properties – 83 per cent of all dwellings inspected – were found to be non-compliant.

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The Commission , which scrutinises the performance of city and county councils across a range of services, said the finding on new building inspections was regrettable and undesirable.

Under the Code of Practice for Inspecting and Certifying Buildings and Works, local authorities are meant to inspect at least 12-15 per cent of all new building works in their administrative area.

“These inspections are vital to ensure buildings are being constructed in line with legislation,” NOAC said.

Increase

The average percentage of new buildings in the Republic inspected by local authorities has fallen from 24 per cent in 2015 to 16.75 per cent in 2018.

NOAC said the figures showed inspections rates were falling against a background of an increase in building projects since the end of the recession.

The watchdog said many councils claimed the decrease was due to a combination of more construction activity and insufficient staffing levels.

It noted that the number of local authorities failing to meet the target rate had increased from two in 2017 to eight last year.

The councils which failed to achieve the 12-15 per cent inspection rate in 2018 were: Cork City, Cork County, Galway City, Kilkenny, Louth, Mayo, Offaly and Tipperary.

Kilkenny County Council had the lowest inspection rate with checks carried out on just 5.9 per cent of new buildings.

The best performer was Dublin City Council which inspected almost 70 per cent of all new buildings in the capital last year, although the figure was down from 83 per cent in 2017.

The report also showed that just 7.4 per cent of registered tenancies were inspected by councils last year – 23,824 out of over 322,000 dwellings.