Sir, – Recent letters suggest a misunderstanding about the changes in Building Control Regulations by conflating planning policy – “where we build” – with building control – “how buildings are inspected”.
The accepted narrative seems to be that Minister Alan Kelly and Minister of State for Housing and Planning Paudie Coffey have caved into “vested interests” to secure rural votes by lowering construction standards. But the planned changes do not mean any relaxation of standards which still apply in full to all residential projects, only changes in procedures and documentation.
Stakeholder organisations have not provided realistic proposals to reduce the costs for a system they helped create, leaving the Ministers with no alternative but to make urgent changes to the system.
Some may say (correctly) this is just the start of the Department of the Environment rectifying a problem of its own making. However the Ministers should be commended for going against their own departmental advisers and others.
Mr Coffey has signalled that local authority building control will be increasingly present on sites, a welcome development for consumers and industry alike.
If this is resourced properly, perhaps we can look forward to a building industry which is no longer subject to “wild-west” self-regulation and accords more closely with international best practice. – Yours, etc,
MAOILÍOSA REYNOLDS
Architect,
Sandycove,
Co Dublin.