Building Regulation and Standards Summit
May 29th 2018
9:00
Welcome and opening remarks from the Chair

Tina-Marie O'Neill
Property Editor, The Sunday Business Post
Regulatory Reform
9:10
MINISTERIAL ADDRESS:
Ireland’s building control policy and reform

Damien English TD
Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government
9:30
INTERNATIONAL KEYNOTE ADDRESS:
Quality check: Adopting international best practice to ensure an effective inspection and enforcement regime
An effective inspection regime in our building control system is crucial to ensure the regulations are adhered to. So, what are international best practice principles to sustainably improve regulatory enforcement and inspections – making them more effective, efficient and transparent?

Daniel Trnka
Senior Policy Analyst, Regulatory Policy Division, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Paris
International Best Practice
10:00
Building control regulations: Ireland in an International context
Our speaker compares the current BCAR system with international best practice, using examples and experiences from other countries including the Netherlands, the UK and others. Identifying strengths and weaknesses of Ireland’s current system, he’ll suggest ways in which it could be altered to produce more robust regulatory outcomes.

Eoin Leonard
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, i3PT Certification
10:25
Morning Break
Building Consumer Confidence and Trust
10:55
PANEL DISCUSSION:
How do we ensure consumer confidence in the construction industry going forward?
Several cases of building defects have come to light in recent years, many of which received widespread press coverage, reflected badly on the industry and affected consumer confidence. Now that we are embarking on a major new building programme, how do we win back those consumers and earn their trust going forward?

Deirdre Ni Fhloinn
Barrister, PhD candidate: Legal remedies for defective housing and Irish Research Council Scholar

Joe Kennedy
B.Sc.Arch., FRIAI, RIBA, Managing Director, Smith and Kennedy Architects, Joint Managing Director, Kompas International Architects and Chair of the BCAR Steering Group, the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland (RIAI)

Anne Millar
Managing Director, PTL Construction and Director, Inspex Ltd.
11:40
The lowdown on mandatory CIRI membership
The government plans to strengthen oversight in the home-building sector by making it mandatory for providers of construction services to join the Construction Industry Register Ireland (CIRI). How will it work and what difference will it make to construction quality standards?

Hubert Fitzpatrick
Director, Development Housing and Planning Services, Construction Industry Federation (CIF)
12:05
Lunch
1:20
Welcome back from the afternoon Chair

Fergal O’Byrne
Head of Business Excellence Certification, NSAI
Compliance
1:25
COMPLIANCE – PANEL DISCUSSION:
The culture of compliance: How do we build upon our compliance culture in Ireland?
Our panel comprises perspectives from a regulator of another industry, skills and training and a builder.

Patrick Durkan
Managing Director, Durkan Residential Ltd.

Gail Carroll
Enforcement Policy Manager, Food Safety Authority of Ireland

Cormac Allen
Registered Architect and Assistant Head of School, Dublin School of Architecture, Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT)
2:10
AFTERNOON KEYNOTE ADDRESS:
Learning from our failures
What can we learn from previous failures in compliance and regulatory systems in construction? How can we ensure more companies take ownership and responsibility for delivering a safe system throughout the life cycle of a building?

Stewart Macartney
Director, Blyth & Blyth Consulting Engineers, Edinburgh
2:40
LOCKNOTE PANEL DISCUSSION:
The current regulatory regime: a work in progress?
Does our current regulatory regime work? Could it be better? How do we build upon it? What is the ideal?

Kevin Sheridan
Secretary General and Past President of the Association of European Experts in Building and Construction

Eddie Cassidy
Projects Director, Flynn Management and Contractors

Orla Hegarty
BArch MRIAI RIBA, Assistant Professor, the School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, University College Dublin (UCD)

Mairéad Phelan
BE, CEng, FIEI, MBA, Programme Manager, the National Building Control Management Project and the supporting IT System (BCMS), the Local Government Management Agency