Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697804968043.pdf (Ireland)
An Roinn Tithiochta, Rialtais Aitiuil agus Oidhreachta Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage Ms. Sarah O’Farrell Clerk to the Committee Committee Secretariat Committee of Public Accounts Leinster House Dublin 2 16 June 2023 Dear Ms. O’Farrell, I refer to your email dated 01 June 2023 regarding the request for information by the Committee arising from the meeting of the Committee on Thursday 01 June 2023 and for response by Friday 16 June.
Please find attached at Appendix A the detailed response to the 2 questions.

If you have any questions on the attached, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely, __________________ Graham Doyle Secretary General The Secretary General is a Designated Public Official under the Regulation of Lobbying Act, 2015 Oifig an Ard-Rúnaí Office of the Secretary General Teach an Chustaim, Baile Átha Cliath, D01 W6X0 Custom House, Dublin, D01 W6X0 T +353 1 888 2399 | F +353 1 874 0693 secretary-general@housing.gov.ie www.gov.ie/housing R1940 (ii) PAC33 Response to PAC Email of 01 June 2023 – Matters arising at PAC Meeting 01 June 2023 Appendix A Question 1: What the Department is doing in relation to processing the backlog of priority 1 cases waiting for the Housing Adaptation Grants in County Louth and elsewhere and ensuring Local Authorities have the required funding to meet demand.
Department Response: The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage provides funding to local authorities under the Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability, to assist people in private houses to make their accommodation more suitable for their needs.

These grants are available to older people as well as disabled people who have an enduring physical, sensory, mental health or intellectual impairment.
The detailed administration of the scheme including assessment, approval, prioritisation and apportionment is the responsibility of local authorities.

In 2022, almost €86 million in funding was made available to facilitate the payment of over 12,000 grants.

Local authorities were recently informed of their 2023 allocations with each local authority receiving an increase on the 2022 allocation, continuing the year on year increases since 2014.
The funding available for these grants in 2023 has been increased by almost €2 million on the original 2022 provision to a total of over €83 million.

Louth County Council received an allocation of almost €2.25 million and spent approximately €1.35 million in 2022.

In 2023, Louth County Council received an allocation of over €2.3 million which is comprised of over €1.86 million Exchequer funding and over €0.46 million to be funded from the local authority's own resources.
The Department advises local authorities annually that, as far as practicable, a percentage of the allocation under the schemes should be ring fenced in respect of any emergency applications which might arise under these schemes during the course of the year.
Consequently, all local authorities manage their schemes to ensure access to the grants programme is maintained to the extent possible throughout the year in the highest priority cases and further information in this regard would be available directly from the local authorities.

It should be noted that Louth County Council have confirmed that urgent cases involving hospital discharges are still being processed.
The Department works closely with the local authorities to monitor spend and to achieve a full drawdown of available funding.

This means that any underspends that arise on the part of any local authority can be redistributed to other authorities which have high levels of grant activity and the Department makes every effort to redistribute such funding throughout the year.
The ….. 2 R1940 (ii) PAC33 Department encourages all local authorities to ensure all applications on hand are processed to the degree possible for final payment to ensure optimal spend on their annual allocation.

Whilst additional Exchequer funding may become available, the Council must provide the 20% match funding from their own resources therefore the Council is also managing the scheme within the resources allocated at the local level.
The Department recently considered and approved a further Exchequer allocation provision of over €570,000 in 2023 as requested by Louth County Council.

Housing for All commits to reviewing the Housing Adaptation Grants and a report on the review has been prepared by the Department.

The review was informed by engagement with external stakeholders, including the Department of Health, the HSE, the Disability Federation of Ireland and the Irish Wheelchair Association.
Among the areas which the review considered are the income thresholds and the grant limits.

On foot of Minister O’Brien’s consideration of the Review report, the Department is engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform on the recommendations in the Review report.

Question 2: A detailed briefing on the actions the Department is going to take in relation to the resourcing of the National Building Control and Market Surveillance Office.
Department Response: Background The design and construction of buildings is regulated under the Building Control Acts 1990- 2020.

The Acts provide for the making of Building Regulations, Building Control Regulations and designates local authorities as building control authorities.

The 31 local building control authorities have extensive powers of inspection and enforcement under the Building Control Acts and are independent in the use of their statutory powers.
In 2013, in the context of the Building Control Reform Agenda, the National Building Control Management Project (NBCMP) was established within the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA).
The purpose of the NBCMP is to provide oversight, support and direction for the development, standardisation and implementation of Building Control, across the 31 local authorities, as an effective shared service through the four pillars of • • • • The business case, at that time, stated it required 8 staff and an income of €1.6m per annum.

training, inspections, compliance and support and IT enabler - Building Control Management System (BCMS).
….. 3 R1940 (ii) PAC33 In 2018, Dublin City Council (DCC) became the lead authority of the NBCMP on the basis of the same staffing and cost model.

The executive structure became known at that time as the National Building Control Office (NBCO) within DCC.
In 2020, in order to strengthen the market surveillance function, in the context of Brexit and new EU legislation on market surveillance, DCC/ NBCO was appointed as a competent authority for the carrying out of market surveillance functions under the European Union (Construction Products) Regulations 2013 for all related construction products on a nationwide basis.
The Market Surveillance Unit was established as an additional fifth pillar within the NBCO and the office became known as the National Building Control and Market Surveillance Office (NBCMSO).

In order to carry out the market surveillance function, the business case stated that the NBCMSO required an additional 4 staff and additional income of €564,169 per annum.

This Department funded the establishment and initial operation of the national market surveillance unit in the NBCMSO in 2020 and 2021.
In 2022, the funding transitioned back to local authorities.

Funding & Staffing Similar to other shared services, the NBCMSO is funded by the local authorities.

The NBCMSO seeks approval from the LGMA annually to charge local authorities.

Each year €1,600,000 (on a proportional basis) is provided by local authorities for the building control shared services and €564,000 (on an equal basis) is provided for the market surveillance shared service.
In relation to staffing, each local authority Chief Executive is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authority for which he or she is responsible.

This applies to both the NBCMSO, within DCC, and all local building control authorities.

In line with the two business cases for the NBCMSO as set out above, the NBCMSO estimate that 12 staff in total are required to carry out the functions within its scope.
Based on a recent survey of the 31 local building control authorities, undertaken by the NBCMSO in April 2023, there are 58 full-time equivalent Building Control Officers and 37.15 full-time equivalent administrative staff servicing this function nationally.

The National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) annually collects and publishes data on the inspection levels reached by the local authorities in its Local Authority Performance Indicator Report.
Latest figures show 27.35% of notified new buildings were inspected in 2021, ….. 4 R1940 (ii) PAC33 an increase from 21.71% in 2020.

This is one aspect of the many different building control and market surveillance activities that local building control authorities & NBCMSO carry out.
Current Position A recent newspaper article on staffing levels in the NBCMSO reported on an email from January 2022 from the head of the NBCMSO to assistant chief executive of DCC that the Office did not have a full complement of staff.

Kieran O’Donnell, TD, Minister of State, met with the Head of the NBCMSO on May 30th.

It was confirmed that the office has 9 staff in place at present and 3 vacancies (two technical and one administrative).
The Head of the NBCMSO confirmed that she is not seeking additional staff beyond the 3 vacancies that currently exist.

Minister O’Donnell also met with the Assistant Chief Executive of DCC on June 2nd with responsibility for the NBCMSO, who subsequently confirmed that the two technical posts were advertised on June 9th with a closing date of 30th June and that the Clerical Officer post will be filled on 15th June.
The Department fully supports the work of the NBCMSO and considers it a key element of the Government’s ongoing building control reform agenda, with its many initiatives that already provide a comprehensive roadmap for embedding a culture of real compliance within the construction industry.

The Department continues to work with the County and City Management Association (CCMA), DCC and the NBCMSO to ensure that the NBCMSO is properly positioned to provide an optimal shared service to the local authorities.
In this regard, discussions are underway in regard to a revised governance structure for the NBCMSO.

The revised governance structure is aimed at strengthening connections with the local authority sectoral management (CCMA/LGMA) while streamlining and clarifying stakeholder engagement.
It is proposed that a new steering group would provide strategic oversight including agreement of the work programme, ensuring the availability of adequate resources and funding, and monitoring/reporting on progress and budgets etc.

Such a steering group would report directly into the CCMA’s Housing Building and Land Use committee.

An integral part of this proposal would be a dedicated structure for the development of the next generation of the IT system for building control (BCMS).
Future Initiatives While the enforcement of Building Control and Market Surveillance has been improved and developed significantly over the last ten years locally and nationally under the Building Control Management Project and leadership of the NBCMSO, it is acknowledged that further strengthening is required.

In that context, the Programme for Government and Housing for all ….. 5 R1940 (ii) PAC33 commits to establishing an independent building standards regulator.
The purpose of the Regulator would be to strengthen the oversight role of the State with the aim of further reducing the risk of building failures and enhancing public confidence in construction-related activity.

The objective is to ensure that this regulator has sufficient breadth of scope, effective powers of inspection and enforcement, and an appropriate suite of sanctions.

It is intended that the building standards regulator will be established on a statutory basis (through primary legislation).
In this regard, the Minister O’Brien informed the Government on 18 January of his intention to develop legislative proposals for the establishment of an independent building standards regulator.

As a first step, a comprehensive desktop study was undertaken by the Housing Agency in collaboration with the Department, which documented the current building control system and construction product enforcement system in Ireland and other countries.
It also provides an overview of other relevant regulators and inspectorates in Ireland.

Building on the information contained in this study (completed in March 2023), the Department has commenced dialogue with the County and City Management Association with a view to determining the scope, functions, role and structure of the regulator.

It is intend to bring proposals to Government later in 2023.

….. 6 R1940 (ii) PAC33