Did the Minister refer to the issue of fire certificates under the proposed building regulations as applying to all buildings? Surely the Minister is not correct in stating that, as approximately 24,000 buildings which are erected every year are to be exempted from the terms of the proposed Building Control Bill and the building regulations. I understand new dwellinghouses will not be covered under the proposed building regulations.

Sorry, Deputy?

The fire certificates under the proposed building regulations.

They will operate within the ambit of the building regulations. What applies to the building regulations will apply to the fire certificates as well.

Is it proposed to exempt all new dwellinghouses from the terms of the building regulations?

Yes, as a temporary measure. We do not see that as being long term. To get the building regulations implemented we felt that we could not include every dwelling. The major developments have to be taken into consideration.

In his Second Stage speech the Minister stated that dwellinghouses were being exempted from the conditions.

That is right.

He did not say it was temporary. He just said they would not be included.

It is hoped that over a period of time they will be included.

How can the Minister be so optimistic as to expect the Building Control Bill to come before the Dáil and be completed by the end of this month?

I did not say that. I said by the end of the year.

The end of this year. That is just over a month away. The Minister received a letter dated 16 October from four institutes, the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, the Institute of Engineers, the Association of Consulting Engineers and the Society of Chartered Surveyors, in which it was stated that they could only assume that the Minister had abandoned the principle of consensus and agreement expressed on Second Stage Reading in the Dáil and at a meeting which he had with them. They go on to say that in these circumstances these four organisations have no alternative but to withdraw their support for the Bill in its present form and to reiterate their view that what is proposed in the Bill is unfair, unworkable and not in the national interest.

I do not intend to discuss in this House personal correspondence I receive from bodies. I have written to them seeking a meeting. If they choose to make public their correspondence I do not intend to do the same.

Will the Minister agree that, in the course of the discussion on the Building Control Bill, he agreed to withdraw the Bill from the House because he could see the difficulties it would present to those who were being asked in the Bill to implement it, those in the building professions? Having recognised the difficulty, as explained from this side of the House, he agreed to withdraw the Bill and go and have talks with the building professions.

I did not agree to withdraw it.

Now we understand these talks have collapsed, which the Minister denied some time ago and which his Minister denied last week. Does the Minister deny that is the truth I have now put on the record of the House?

I do deny it. I did not say I would withdraw the Bill. I said we would have the Second Stage of the Bill and before we took Committee Stage we would have consultations. That did not make any reference to withdrawing the Bill.