Leaders' Questions

Tá mé tar éis labhairt le seanathair a bhfuil garmhac trí bliana d’aois aige atá neamhbhriathartha agus ag fanacht le teiripe urlabhra. Tá an seanathair seo 52 bliain d’aois agus ag fáil scagdhealaithe – dialysis – trí huaire in aghaidh na seachtaine. Tá sé i ndiaidh ofráil deireadh a chur lena chúram leighis ionas go mbeadh a gharmhac ábalta an cuidiú a bhfuil de dhíth air a fháil. Ní féidir an grá nó an crá croí a shéanadh. Tá na mílte leanaí ag fanacht le teiripe urlabhra agus teanga. An ndéanfaidh An Tánaiste idirghabháil i gcás an linbh seo chun cinntiú go bhfaighidh sé an teiripe? An ndéanfaidh sé gníomh a chuirfidh deireadh leis an mhoill seo? I received an email during the week from a grandfather, who also contacted the Tánaiste. It stopped me in my tracks. I want to read it to the Tánaiste. It is very brief. He states that he is getting in touch regarding his only grandchild, who is three and is non-verbal but is a beautiful, happy, funny boy, and that his heart breaks for the child as he cannot talk and gets so frustrated. This grandfather states that his daughter has the child on a waiting list to be seen and he feels he is being left behind. He states that he himself is not well, he is on dialysis three times weekly and he is sure a lot of problems boil down to money. He states that he will do a trade-off; he will cease his treatment, saving the State a lot of money, if his grandson can get speech therapy. He further states that he knows what his outcome will be but he would give anything to hear his grandson's little voice. He asks the Tánaiste to treat his email seriously as he is 100% certain of his choices, and that he is still young at 52 but is at peace with his decision. I have spoken to this man since and I have told him to continue his treatment. He gets that, but he is desperate. His love for his grandson is unmistakable and his heart is broken. He is 52 years of age, as he said. He is on dialysis three times a week and he was prepared to stop that treatment in order for that young, three-year-old grandchild to get the therapy he needs. What he needs is a direct, compassionate response and his grandson needs the help. This is part of a wider failure in community care which gets far less attention than hospital waiting lists. HSE figures at the end of August show that there were 6,170 children waiting to begin their initial speech and language therapy. Across the Clare and County Limerick service area, 305 children are waiting on speech and language therapy. The longest waiting for assessment in that area of County Clare is 91 weeks. In my own county of Donegal, for children waiting for initial therapy the longest assessment was 44 weeks and families who cannot afford private therapy have no alternative but to wait. Sinn Féin have told the Tánaiste time and time again. We have called for more therapists. We have called for clear waiting times. We have called for targets. We have called for monthly publication of community care waiting lists. We have proposed legislation requiring the National Treatment Purchase Fund to publish those lists. I am sure that when the Tánaiste stands up, he will say that 24,000 people were removed from the waiting list for therapy by the end of July, but the real question is how many of those children received treatment because removal from a list is not the same as care being delivered. Will the Tánaiste publish the results? Today, I want to make a plea for that grandfather - that grandfather whose heart is broken. When I spoke to him, all I could hear from every syllable that he uttered was love, desperation and care for his grandchild. I am asking the Tánaiste to intervene in this particular case. I am asking the Tánaiste that this child's needs are reviewed and to ensure that he gets the speech and language therapy. This man's grandson cannot wait for another acknowledgement. I am asking the Tánaiste to intervene for this family now, but crucially to get this system fixed for the thousands of families like his who are just as desperate as he was and need the support for their children also.

I thank Deputy Doherty for raising this issue. I also thank that gentleman for emailing the Deputy and me in relation to his little grandchild. I share the Deputy's view, at the outset, that it shows the love and the bond that exists between a grandparent and their grandchild, and every grandparent or every parent wanting the very best for their grandchild or child and all of us wanting to see the very best done for children in this country as well. It should never be, and indeed never is, a choice between that man receiving the treatment he so desperately requires and wanting and expecting his young grandchild to also receive the speech and language therapy that he so badly needs and requires. I am sorry to hear, in the first instance, of the clear stress and anxiety that man is feeling. The Deputy said I received an email, which I will check now. I will certainly raise it with the Ministers and pass that email on to the HSE. The Government recognises that primary care waiting list and therapy waiting lists are still too long and a number of initiatives are being taken to try to reduce the primary care waiting list. I am always conscious when I stand up and say these things that it matters little to the person who is wondering when their three-year-old grandchild is going to get the therapy. I take that point, but I want that grandfather to know, and I want all grandparents or parents who have their children waiting to know, that this is an area we are working on very intensively. In September 2025, the Minster, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, provided funding for a long waiters initiative, with a specific focus on physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy waiting lists. There has been progress made through that. The important aim there is not only to reduce the numbers on the waiting lists in the short term, but to try to build a system that can stay on top of it in the longer term, and to have a lasting impact in addressing those backlogs and building capacity for the future. We expect further progress to be made on that through the next HSE service plan too. The Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, also here today, has pointed out to me the progress that is being made in terms of our children's disability network teams. What I would say to that gentleman is that we have funding in place to hire more therapists, specifically to work in those teams. These are the network teams we all know in our constituency and in our community that work with children with disability needs. We have seen progress being made in reducing CDNT waiting lists. In fact, waiting lists were reduced by around 28% in 2025, with a commitment to build on that reduction during this year too. People will know - those opposite will know this as constituency TDs - that funding can be allocated to hire more people. We also need to build up the pipeline of therapists that we have available to hire in the system. The Minister, Deputy Lawless, is increasing the number of student places. Indeed, the programme for Government commits to doubling the number of college places for speech and language therapists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dietitians, psychologists and social workers, providing up to 461 additional student places by 2028. For the three-year-old child today, I know that is not the answer, but it is the answer for building up the capacity of the system to make sure we do not find ourselves in a situation where any grandparent is worrying whether their grandchild will get access to the treatment they so very much require. I thank that gentleman for bringing this issue in relation to his grandchild to my attention. I want to assure him that I will make sure the HSE has access to that information but I also want him, more importantly, to know that we are working on this as a priority issue. We are expanding our children's disability network teams right across the country, we are increasing the number of therapists working on them, we are increasing the number of training places to make sure we have an even further pipeline and we have, thankfully, seen waiting lists for CDNTs falling as a result of that investment.

We all deal with people but there has rarely been a time in my life that I was as taken aback as I was by this email. It was the lengths this person was willing to go to and the idea that he was trying to help the State provide speech and language therapy for his young grandson of three years of age, as he says. He would do anything just to hear his little voice. He was willing to give up his own treatment, knowing that would have an adverse impact on his own life and thinking that by saving the State a few pound, his young grandson would get treatment. That is the desperation that families feel. The Tánaiste is talking about what the Government is doing. I could roll back the clock, with respect, and the Tánaiste would give the same speech last year and the year before. There are hundreds of children who are waiting for speech and language therapy for more than two years - not weeks and not months but two years. Seven hundred children are waiting on speech and language therapy for two years. The waiting time is 204 weeks in parts of Dublin for initial assessment. What comfort is the Tánaiste going to give to the thousands of parents out there whose children are non-verbal and who know that with the support of the State they can speak and talk, yet the system and the Government is failing them over and over again? I ask the Tánaiste to look at the crisis the Government is causing in relation to this and what measures he will put in place to adequately address it in the coming months.

What I would say to that individual, and to anybody whose child is awaiting therapies, is that the number of people working in our CDNTs is increasing as is the amount of funding going into them and that the wait times are now decreasing. The HSE preliminary data shows that the national CDNT waiting list has reduced by 62% from 16,522 children awaiting contact with a team in 2023 to 6,217 at the end of June 2026. Of course, that number is still too high but it is important that, as a Government, we give parents both hope and a way forward or direction of travel. That, by any measure, is a significant reduction in waiting times for CDNTs. We will and we must go further but we also have to tell people that we have to build the entire system here as well. We have to make sure we have enough people available to hire because, as the Deputy knows, we often put funding in place and run recruitment campaigns and find we cannot fill the necessary posts. That is why the Minister, Deputy Lawless, is significantly increasing the number of therapy places. This is a priority for Government, progress has been made and we will build on that progress in the time ahead.

I, too, welcome all of the young people in the Gallery. It is great to see them here. An internal Fine Gael report has found that many people are confused about what the party stands for. Can I be so bold as to suggest a reason for the confusion? It is the party's repeated failure, after nearly 16 years in government, to deliver on promised commitments because it prefers to narrate the problems of this country rather than doing anything about them. We have seen that with the housing and cost-of-living crises but nowhere is it more evident than in the Government’s shameful treatment of children with additional needs and their families. They have known nothing but failure from this Government and every other Government Fine Gael has been involved in since 2011. For those families talk is cheap and the Tánaiste's commitments are not credible because despite promise after promise, nothing gets better. Parents listen to Members of this Government insist that disability services and special education are a priority while watching their children being denied basic services and supports every single day. It is exhausting, demoralising and heartbreaking. It should be no surprise that these families have so little faith in this Government and its plans to overhaul access to special education. It is now nearly a year since the Government announced it wanted to remove the requirement for children to have a diagnosis to access special classes and supports. There was very little information about this proposal until this week and the response has been very clear. All of the teacher unions have written to the Department to express universal opposition to these plans and I agree with their concerns. It seems that this plan is not being driven by the needs of children or their best interests but it is being introduced because the State has failed to provide them with timely access to diagnosis through the assessment of need process. Diagnoses are being presented as some kind of optional extra when the reality is that professional assessments and diagnoses are critical because they outline what the child needs to survive and thrive. Teachers are not qualified to do this functional, clinical work. They are not psychologists. Principals are not clinicians and schools are not diagnostic centres; they are places of teaching and learning. This proposal, as outlined in documents from the Department, will mean that a child will have to display behaviours that persistently impact on attendance, achievement, participation and well-being before they receive specialist supports. Does the Government want a child to underachieve or fail before he or she gets the appropriate supports? In what world is that appropriate? Where is the care and humanity in that? It is cruel and it is a throwback to a time when this country treated the most vulnerable people with the most contempt. Does the Tánaiste accept this new proposal is more about Government convenience rather than the best interests of the child?

No. Quite frankly, I accept that if every time we tried to consult and engage on how we reform a system and we tried to shut down the debate before having the engagement, that would not be in the interests of the child. The Deputy provoked me in relation to my party report. If it was a secret report, we would not have emailed it to thousands of people-----

Hear, hear.

------and be handing out hard copies at the Ard-Fheis and having a discussion in the full glare of the media. Sometimes it is good for parties to actually look at how they can best serve this country and not be complacent about the centre holding and populism not taking hold. I look forward to that discussion. I will debate my party's record with anyone. We will do that at the Ard-Fheis. My party’s record since I came into this House is going from a position of 15% unemployment and the IMF being in town to seeing 145 homes completed every single working day. There are 300 people getting keys to their new home every working day. We have full employment. We are reducing tax and childcare costs, we have a record number of special classes-----

There is record homelessness.

Sorry, the way this works is that a Deputy does not just get to make a charge and I roll over and they tickle my belly. If somebody says something, I actually have a right to respond to it in this House.

Hear, hear.

Do not try to shout me down. That is the first point. The second point is in relation to special education. It always worries me when the starting point is that the unions said it is a bad idea. Quite frankly, sometimes it is not about the unions or the politicians-----

It was not.

That was not the starting point.

Hang on a second, please. I fully respect Deputy Cummins and her sincerity, bona fides, and knowledge on and interest in this issue but I also know the current system is not working and it is not serving children. I think we can agree on that. I know what I am meant to do. I meant to stand up here and trot out a load of figures,say we are spending more money than ever before and we have more special classes than ever before. All of that is true but the system is still not working. Are we going to continue pumping money into a system that is letting children down or are we going to ask what inclusive education looks like? I want to assure parents and teachers that nothing is decided here, and I am not suggesting the Deputy is not, but let us make sure there is an honesty in relation to this. Nothing is decided. We want to consult extensively with all stakeholders. That is simply where we are at. We need to ask ourselves whether there are too many hoops and hurdles and too much bureaucracy that a child has to jump through before getting a place in a special school, and I contend there absolutely is. I would look at it the other way. The Deputy said we want the child to fail but she does not believe that. Nobody wants a child to fail. However, what we are doing now is saying a child has to have this or that piece of paper and has to tick a box. If the family is fortunate enough to be able to pay for the piece of paper, that is not on either. We have to see whether the system has become overly bureaucratic because I do not believe we are getting the return on investment families expect. Quite rightly, the figures we are spending on special education are extraordinarily large - it is good we are spending lots of money on special education - but they should not be that large with so many people still dissatisfied. What the Minister, Deputy Naughton, is doing with the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, is trying to have a conversation about reform alongside investment and how we get this model right. As part of that, we will have this inclusive education forum, which I think the Deputy is in favour of, which will kick off on 12 November. Let us have a discussion about what the model looks like. In relation to this, any future proposals will involve lots of engagement with advocacy organisations, disabled persons organisations, and educational stakeholders. Of course, they will. However, we should be willing to have the conversation because the current system is not best serving children.

I am delighted to hear the Tánaiste does not think it is working because I do not either. I respect the work he and other people in this Government are doing in this area but it is not good enough. The fact is that it is not working fast enough. There is idea after idea - we will try this or that out. There is a document going around at the moment comparing our education system to other countries but it is not like for like. We cannot make this up as we go along. There are going to be many more children coming into the system with additional needs. We need proper plans but they should not be piecemeal. That is the problem. It is not only the problem with the view in this Government of special education but it is also what is happening on the ground for children and schools. We saw in a documentary a couple of weeks ago where children with additional educational needs are being treated as second- or even third-class citizens in this country. We are not getting it right. My quest is to make sure that I put as much pressure as possible on the Government to get this right and get the expertise and listen to people on the ground and the parents. They know what that is. I know the Government is having that forum but it has to stop kite-flying because it is scaring families, children, and education providers.

I am very conscious of the point the Deputy makes about kite-flying and the anxiety it can cause but I say, respectfully, that it is not kite-flying which is when you begin consultation, start to engage and somebody somewhere in the system says, "This is what we are doing." No decision has been made nor is there any plan for an immediate change. I say that genuinely. Any changes that come about might happen in September 2028, and not this coming September. The second exchange we are having is more productive. The Deputy should be putting us under pressure. We, collectively, need to put ourselves under pressure to do more and do better rather than just rhyming off the statistics. We have all seen the benefits of the new classes in schools. Those are real benefits but it is still not enough. I and the Government believe there is a rigidity here. I was just asked about a grandfather who is wondering whether his three-year-old grandchild will get speech and language therapy. Part of the answer to speeding up access in general will be to free up therapists to do less report writing and more provision of therapy. We have to look at how we get this right. We have to drive reform. We in this country have an addiction to spending. The answer is to spend more, spend more and spend more. We must have a similar level of obsession with the impact of that spending and the difference it is making. Let us work, whether through the education committee of these Houses or the inclusive forum, to get the model right. The Deputy should be keeping us under pressure to go faster but we should have a shared destination for where we want to get to. It has to be a better place than we are in now.

Yesterday, the current and previous Ministers for justice, Deputies Jim O'Callaghan and McEntee, confirmed to this House that they acted without legal authority in the handling of Superintendent Brian O'Reilly's protected disclosures. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, admitted she interfered in the protected disclosure process when she should not have. She also admitted that Superintendent O'Reilly's correspondence to her was a protected disclosure in its own right but she sent it to An Garda Síochána. In doing so, she acted without legal authority. She did so using previous protected disclosures as some form of precedent for the handling of his case. That is ridiculous. She also tried to downgrade this protected disclosure by him "as a complaint rather than as a protected disclosure" and that it would be sent to GSOC, now Fiosrú. The current Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, then came into office and actioned this by sending it as a complaint on 7 February 2025. In doing so, he also acted without legal authority. Those two Ministers acted without legal authority. That is very dangerous territory for this Government, and potentially fatal. Why? Because once the Office of the Protected Disclosures Commissioner made its statutory appointment of the then-Secretary General of the Department of Justice on 2 October 2023 to deal with this protected disclosure, it was locked in time. That is it. Brian O'Reilly has been treated like dirt by An Garda Síochána and the Department of justice. His protected disclosures were left in abeyance for three years. More important is the Horkan family, whom the Tánaiste knows. They have good time for him. Yesterday, they dismissed as "nonsense" the idea that the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, would ask Fiosrú to investigate their concerns regarding what happened to their son and brother on the night he was murdered. They feel let down and will not be co-operating with any such investigation. GSOC was tasked with investigating this very issue in relation to these holsters, which I hold in my hand, in 2019, 11 months before Colm Horkan was murdered. It could not do it because it could not get the co-operation of An Garda Síochána. How is the family meant to have confidence in the same organisation, newly re-established, to do an investigation that it could not do back then? This is unprecedented. A family is fighting the State to get an investigation into the circumstances of the capital murder of their loved one because of these holsters. The Government needs to change course. I am going to say out straight that this is not going to go away. The Government needs to stand up for this family. They are watching as I speak. I must say directly to the Tánaiste, whose party is meant to stand for law and order, that they are depending on him and his response.

I thank the Deputy. I say at the outset that I know the Ministers, Deputies McEntee and O'Callaghan, would always discharge their duties in line with the best possible advice available to them and with respect to the law. I know the Deputy has raised a range of broader issues there but I want to be clear in my view in relation to that. I, like the Deputy, want today to focus my remarks on the specific point he made about the Horkan family and Detective Garda Colm Horkan. I reiterate that Colm's murder in 2020 shocked people right across this country. It stole a good, decent, honourable member of An Garda Síochána from his family and friends. He was a man who was beloved and kind, and served his country and community with duty and distinction. The Colm that his family and friends knew and loved so much became a personal loss for the Garda family but also for this country. I know he was a proud Mayo man and GAA man. Indeed, I was honoured, as Taoiseach, to meet his family, including his dad, and to open a pitch in his honour and memory. I could feel that day the love and respect that all of Colm's colleagues and community held for him. His murder reminds us of the risks that gardaí take every day to protect all of us and the burden that all Garda families carry in supporting them. I want to say on the record of this House that Colm Horkan exemplified courage and dedication. Thinking of his family, imagine how any of us would feel. I do not know how any of us would feel, as a family, if our loved one was taken from us in such brutal circumstances. Of course we would want answers. I understand that fully. The Deputy knows that the individual responsible for the murder of Detective Garda Horkan has been tried and convicted by a jury in a public hearing before the Central Criminal Court. There has been an appeal of that conviction. There is a reserve judgment from the Court of Appeal and neither I nor the Deputy are attempting to cut across that, nor should we. The Minister for justice met the Horkan family on 29 October to listen to their concerns. The Minister this week made the decision that the Deputy outlined, which was to request Fiosrú, under section 205(2) of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Act 2024, to conduct an investigation into matters concerning the safety and suitability of the holster used by Colm at the time of the incident at which he was murdered. My understanding is that Fiosrú has now agreed to conduct an independent investigation of these matters. It is also hoped that the criminal proceedings will conclude shortly and, thereafter, there will be a coroner's inquest to be held in public. I know the Horkan family deserves answers. The Government will need to reflect further on yesterday's comments from the family. There will need to be further engagement with the family. We need to find a mechanism that works for them in terms of trying to get those answers. The Minister has said very clearly that he retains an open mind on a public inquiry. I reiterate that today. We need further engagement with the family and to work out how best to put a mechanism in place to address their sincerely held concerns about the brutal murder and loss of their loved one.

I thank the Tánaiste. I hope he has moved the dial on this. With all his colleagues beside him, I say, in all sincerity, that the Dáil has to move. It was not good that the Minister for justice met the family a week ago and then said that he was referring the matter to Fiosrú without them knowing and telling them it was happening. They were never going to co-operate with this. They feel let down and call it an absolute "nonsense" for the reasons I have outlined. I hope what the Tánaiste is saying here today is going to be reflected in the coming weeks with a change whereby this family will be engaged with because they need to be met, perhaps by the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach, and that there will be a form of inquiry or process found - I am not hung up about what it will be - to absolutely meet their needs and questions. Will the Tánaiste please commit to that?

I thank the Deputy. A number of broader issues have been raised in this House in recent times and there have been responses from the Government and processes are ongoing. I note that. My comments are separate from and distinct to that. Alongside and parallel to that, there is a grieving family who lost their son and brother, a serving member of An Garda Síochána. It is, in and of itself, rare to lose a member of An Garda Síochána in active service. They have concerns and questions. The Minister for justice met them in recognition of that and he brought forward what he believed to be a mechanism to try to provide answers. The family has now clearly given a view in relation to that and the Government needs to reflect further on that and engage further. I appreciate what the Deputy says in terms of, to quote him back constructively, not being "hung up" on the format. It is about trying to establish the information and answers the family want about the loss of their son and brother, Detective Garda Colm Horkan. That is the way in which Government should and will engage on this matter and there will be further engagement with the family.

I raise serious issues of accountability and public protection in the engineering profession in Ireland. Engineers play a critical role. Their reports can determine whether a home is safe, whether a family can remain in it or whether homeowners have any route to redress when things go wrong. In the defective concrete crisis serious concerns have been raised. Complaints have been made to Engineers Ireland about professional conduct. When this issue is raised in the Dáil the response has been that it is a matter for Engineers Ireland. My questions are straightforward. Given the State's recognition of Engineers Ireland's role and the professional framework it provides, does the State accept responsibility to assure independent oversight? What independent mechanism exists for the public when complaints arise? Will the Government commit to an independent review of the current arrangements? I am not asking the Tánaiste to intervene in any individual complaints but to ensure proper, independent accountability where professional standards affect public safety and people's homes.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta for raising this question. It is an issue he has been pursuing through a variety of the fora and avenues available to him, including parliamentary questions, in recent times. In order to ensure the safety of people within the built environment, the design and construction of buildings in Ireland is regulated under the Building Control Acts. There are clear administrative procedures in place for demonstrating compliance in respect of an individual building or works, and they are set out in the building control regulations. These empower competence and professionalism in construction projects but they also endeavour to establish a chain of responsibility that begins with the owner. With certain limited exceptions, the owner must assign competent persons to design, build, inspect and certify the building works. These, in turn, must account for their role through the lodgement of compliance documentation, inspection plans and statutory certificates. Under those regulations, chartered engineers on the register maintained by Engineers Ireland under section 7 of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland (Charter Amendment) Act 1969 may be appointed and may be signed as an assigned certifier, provided they are competent in relation to the particular works involved. That assigned certifier is assigned by the building owner to inspect and co-ordinate the inspection activities. There are also strong powers of enforcement under the Building Control Acts to ensure compliance with both the building regulations and the building control regulations. Enforcement is delegated to the local building control authorities which are independent in the exercise of their statutory powers. That is the factual position. It is slightly technical but it is important to put on the record of the House. In answering this question, I am aware of the context in which the Deputy raises this and the real trauma people in his county and others, though perhaps particularly in Donegal, have gone through with the mica situation. While not in any way like the Deputy, I have been in homes in Donegal affected by this and seen the devastation - the pain, stress, anxiety and the rest - it has caused people. I wanted to acknowledge that. To be helpful in terms of what Deputy Ward is suggesting, there is a programme for Government commitment to establish a new building standards regulatory authority. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage is currently implementing this two-stage process. The aim of this new authority is to strengthen the oversight role of the State in respect of the design and construction of buildings. I wonder perhaps if this is an issue the Minister could engage further with the Deputy on because the aim is that the new authority will ensure stronger oversight of design and construction and give greater confidence about those standards as well. There is the programme for Government commitment on that. On foot of the Deputy raising this issue in the Dáil, I will send the transcript of this discussion to the Minister for housing and ask that he engage with the Deputy on that basis.

I accept that and I understand where the Tánaiste is coming from regarding this. However, engineers are administering their own profession, so their disciplinary processes are being done in-house when a problem arises. A problem is arising now. We have hundreds, potentially thousands, of houses affected and this will be something we will have to come back to retrospectively. When it comes to precisely these concerns the public has serious questions and the operation of these processes needs independent oversight. There is no doubt about that. The Department of enterprise has no responsibility and when we try the Department with responsibility for public bodies, there is no responsibility. Basically, Engineers Ireland is marking its own homework. There is no process and no accountability. People are in this scheme and there are issues with it, but there is no accountability for engineers who are not doing their job. I am asking the Government to identify the responsibilities and the areas and to ensure we have some form of independent statutory mechanism going forward to make this scheme work.

I do not want to be argumentative on this issue, but I respectfully suggest there are some laws that already underpin a number of these issues of building control and standards. In my previous answer, I specifically referenced the Building Control Acts and the strong powers of enforcement that are there to ensure people comply with the building regulations and the building control regulations. I would not fully align with the idea that Engineers Ireland or any other professional body can just have its register and do its own thing. Obviously Engineers Ireland does the register and that is an important thing. It has its professional standards and it is the professional body, but we all operate under the laws of the land. The bigger question perhaps is whether the laws of the land and the structures are adequate. Do they need to be more robust? As I said, the programme for Government agrees with Deputy Ward to a point, in that there is certainly a need for a new building standards regulatory authority to try to better co-ordinate, strengthen and enhance the oversight role of the State when it comes to the design and construction of buildings. I will feed the Deputy's comments back to the Minister, Deputy Browne, as part of that process.