In some counties less than 12% of new buildings are being inspected
Warning comes as estimates for dealing with mica, pyrite and apartment defects, expected to exceed €5bn
“Unless quality control measures with regard to Modern Methods of Construction are addressed, we are storing up issues for the future”
Monday June 10th 2024: The new President of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI), Kevin Hollingsworth has said Ireland’s approach to the enforcement of building regulations requires a cultural shift and a new proactive approach by local authorities backed by exchequer funding.
At the moment, local authorities are required to only inspect between 12% and 15% of new buildings notified to them. According to the National Oversight and Audit Commission’s Local Authority Performance Indicator Report, two local authorities – Mayo and Sligo – did not meet this low bar in 2022 with many others just reaching the minimum target.
Mr Hollingsworth, who has played a key role in highlighting the defects issue in ‘Celtic Tiger’ era apartments, said all local authorities needed to view enforcement of building regulations as an essential service for future homeowners, not minimum targets which need to be achieved.
He said that tens of thousands of people all over the country are now grappling with the financial and emotional costs of legacy issues such as mica, pyrite and apartment defects. In that context he said it was logical to dramatically scale up the numbers of building control regulation inspections.
“The Government’s estimate for dealing with the financial cost of the mica, pyrite and apartment defects issue is about €5bn, made up of €250m for pyrite, €2.2bn for mica and €2.5bn for apartment defects*. However, this should be viewed as a minimum figure with more recent media reports indicating a figure in excess of €7bn to be more realistic.
“In 2023, local authorities spent a fraction of this sum, around €20m in total**, on enforcing building control regulations. If you subtract the €5m they made from fees, the figure is just €15m with €5.4m of that being spent by Dublin City Council. Our members tell us that many local authorities view enforcement as a cost they have to shoulder and that there is no incentive for them to increase their level of inspections.”
“We have a situation where 80% of new buildings are now being inspected in Dublin while the figures in Mayo and Sligo are 7% and 11%, respectively. Many of the issues encountered during inspections are localised and that is why it is so important to have a uniform system of inspections with consistent enforcement across the country. Enforcing these important regulations should not depend on the county you’re living in.”
Mr Hollingsworth, who is a chartered fellow of the SCSI as well as a registered building surveyor, project management surveyor and conservation surveyor also warned that unless we invested in quality control measures, we could be storing up issues for the future particularly when it comes to the introduction of Modern Methods of Construction, which will be critical in increasing housing output and reducing costs.
“While a lot of the focus of late has naturally been on legacy defects, new issues will continue to arise if building regulations are not continually enforced. By employing Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), such as offsite construction, builders hope to construct better more cost-efficient homes and offices.”
“However, MMC have to be carried out strictly in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. Our members have identified some serious quality control issues with regard to some MMC products including timber not being protected from the weather when it arrives on site and mould growing on bathroom pods. Unless these supply chain shortcomings are addressed now, these, and other issues are going to become systemic problems in the next decade.”
“That is why we are calling for a cultural shift and a new proactive approach by local authorities to the enforcement of building regulations. Clearly many local authorities do not currently have the resources to carry out much more than the minimum level of inspections and we believe given the sums and the potential savings involved, this would represent an excellent investment by the Government. While the introduction of new building control processes in 2014 – including the creation of the role of assigned certifier – has had a major impact in terms of compliance, we believe that an adequately resourced and funded system of building control is fundamental to achieving safe buildings.”
Housing Crisis
Turning to the housing crisis, Mr Hollingsworth said the SCSI believed the planning process needed to be reformed to ensure the construction sector can deliver the housing the country so desperately needs.
“In addition to addressing planning logjams we need to drive down the soft costs associated with developments, including the pausing of utility connection fees and development levies. The SCSI is in favour of Capital Gains tax on development land for new housing being reduced from 33% to 8% while we also support the establishment of a land price register, similar to the property price register, to promote transparency, support evidence-based decision-making and ensure fairness in land transactions and policy development.”
Promotion of Surveying
Mr Hollingsworth, 47, who is from Raheny in Dublin, is Managing Director of Omega Surveying Services. He has held several senior roles within the SCSI including Chair of the Building Surveying Professional Group and Chair of the Membership and Public Affairs Professional Group. He has been on the SCSI Council for ten years and served on the SCSI Board for the last two years. He said promoting the profession of surveying to school leavers would be one of his priorities during his presidency.
“I know Leaving Cert students will be preoccupied with their exams at the moment but once they have finished, they will have time to consider their CAO choices. The construction sector in general, including surveying, presents so many opportunities right now. Surveying provides a wonderfully diverse career path filled with innovation and opportunities to impact our built environment in a positive way. I would urge them, especially young women, to consider a career in surveying.”
*Report of the Pyrite Panel (2012), Report of the Expert Panel on Concrete Blocks (2017) and Report of the Working Group to Examine Defects in Homes (2022)
**Local Authority Budgets 2023
Ends.
The SCSI
The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) is the independent professional body for Chartered Surveyors working and practising in Ireland. It works in partnership with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the pre-eminent chartered professional body for the property, land and construction sectors around the world. The SCSI and RICS act in the public interest: setting and maintaining the highest standards of competence and integrity among the profession; and, providing impartial, authoritative advice on key issues for business, society and governments. The SCSI, which has its headquarters in Merrion Square in Dublin, has over 6,500 members across the 12 surveying disciplines. For more information go to https://scsi.ie