Building Control Act 2007

54.— (1) A person adversely affected by a decision of the Appeals Board may, within 3 months after the date of such decision, appeal to the High Court against the decision.

• (2) On the hearing of an appeal under this section, the Court may—

• (a) confirm the decision of the Appeals Board, subject to any amendment thereof the Court thinks fit,

• (b) annul the decision and direct the Appeals Board to make a new decision, or

• (c) give such other directions as the Court thinks fit,

and the Court may direct how the costs of the appeal are to be borne.

• (3) On the hearing of an appeal under this section from a decision of the Appeals Board relating to a decision of the Professional Conduct Committee, the High Court may admit evidence of any person of standing in the building surveying profession as to what constitutes professional misconduct or poor professional performance.

55. Certain other jurisdiction of Appeals Board (Part 5).

55.— (1) If the Admissions Board fails to make a decision referred to in subsection (12) of section 44 within—

• (a) unless paragraph (b) applies, the period specified in that subsection (12), or

• (b) if that period has been extended under subsection (13) of that section, the period of that extension (or, if that period has been extended more than once under that subsection, the last period of such extension),

the applicant referred to in section 44 may make a complaint to the Appeals Board that such a failure has occurred.

• (2) On the hearing of such a complaint and having given the Admissions Board an opportunity to be heard, the Appeals Board may, as it thinks appropriate—

• (a) give a direction to the Admissions Board to make the decision concerned forthwith, or

• (b) make itself a decision on the application concerned referred to in section 44 (and where the Appeals Board does so section 54 shall apply to such a decision as it applies to any other decision of the Appeals Board).

PART 6 Fitness to Practise

56. Establishment of Professional Conduct Standards.

56.— (1) The registration body shall prepare a code (in this Part referred to as the “code”) specifying the standards of professional conduct and practice that shall be adhered to by registered professionals.

• (2) The registration body shall review the code prepared by it from time to time and may amend its provisions if it thinks fit.

• (3) A draft of the proposed code or any amendment of it shall be—

• (a) published by the registration body, in such manner as it may determine, together with an invitation to the public and any organisation or other body which appears to the registration body to have an interest in the matter to comment on the draft before a date specified by the registration body in the invitation,

• (b) submitted by the registration body to the Competition Authority with a request for the furnishing in writing (before a date specified by the registration body in the submission) by the Authority of its opinion as to whether any provision of the draft would be likely to result in competition being prevented, restricted or distorted.

• (4) The registration body shall take into account any comment received by it in accordance with an invitation under subsection (3)(a) and any opinion in writing of the Competition Authority received by it in accordance with a request under subsection (3)(b) in relation to the draft code or any amendment of it before it prepares the code or the amendment.

• (5) The registration body shall provide a copy of the code it has prepared to anyone who requests it, on payment of a reasonable charge, or without charge where it considers it appropriate.

57. Complaints to Professional Conduct Committee.

57.— (1) Any person may complain to the Professional Conduct Committee (the “Committee”) concerning an action of a registered professional which is alleged to amount to professional misconduct or poor professional performance.

• (2) Where the Committee is of the opinion that a prima facie case has not been established for an inquiry under subsection (5) with respect to the complaint, it shall so inform the complainant in writing and shall not proceed further.

• F30[(2A) The opinion of the Committee referred to in subsection (2) shall be final and shall not be a decision of the Committee for the purposes of section 25(1), 39(1) or 53(1).]

• (3) The Committee may, where it considers it appropriate to do so, request the complainant and the registered professional who is the subject of the complaint to seek resolution of the complaint by mediation before a person or persons appointed under rules made by the relevant registration body and if the complainant and the registered professional consent to such mediation being conducted, such mediation shall be conducted accordingly.

• (4) If the mediation does not result in the resolution of the complaint, the Committee shall proceed to consider the complaint.

• (5) F31[Subject to subsection (2A), the] Committee may decide to hold an inquiry with respect to a complaint and where it does so the chairperson of the Committee shall notify the other members of the Committee and the complainant and the registered professional of the date, time and place for the hearing, and the notice under this subsection to the registered professional shall be sent by prepaid registered post to the address given in the register, shall contain details of the nature of the alleged complaint against the registered professional and shall inform the registered professional of his or her right to appear before the Committee and to be represented at the hearing by a person of his or her choice.

• (6) For an inquiry under this section, the Committee has the powers, rights and privileges vested in the High Court or a judge thereof in hearing an action, for the purpose of—

• (a) enforcing the attendance of witnesses and examining them on oath or otherwise, and

• (b) compelling the production of documents,

and, for such purposes, a summons signed by the chairperson of the Committee is equivalent to any formal procedure capable of being instituted in an action.

• (7) Where a person summoned by the chairperson to attend before a hearing of the Committee or to produce a document—

• (a) makes default in attending,

• (b) fails or refuses to produce a document that is within that person’s power to produce, or

• (c) refuses to take an oath or refuses to answer a question which the Committee may lawfully ask,

that person shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding €5,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or both.

• (8) If the contravention in respect of which a person is convicted of an offence under subsection (7) is continued after the conviction, the person shall be guilty of a further offence on every day on which the contravention continues and for each such offence the person shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding €500.

• (9) A witness at a hearing under this section has the same immunities and privileges as if he or she were a witness before the High Court.

• (10) On completion of an inquiry, the Committee shall produce a report embodying its findings, including the nature of the complaint, the evidence before it, such other matters relating to the registered professional as it thinks fit and its opinion respecting whether a case of professional misconduct or poor professional performance was established or not.

• (11) The findings of the Committee on any matter referred to it shall not be made public, without the consent of the person who has been the subject of the inquiry, unless the Committee has found the person to be guilty of professional misconduct or poor professional performance.

• (12) Where the Committee has not found the registered professional guilty of professional misconduct or poor professional performance it shall so notify the complainant and inform the complainant of his or her right of appeal to the Appeals Board against its finding.

58. Decision of the Professional Conduct Committee.

58.— (1) Where the Professional Conduct Committee (the “Committee”) finds there has been no professional misconduct or poor professional performance on the part of the registered professional, it shall take no further action in the matter and shall so inform the registered professional.

• (2) Where the Committee determines that a registered professional is guilty of professional misconduct or poor professional performance, it may, subject to the other provisions of this Act, do one or more of the following:

• (a) advise, admonish or censure the registered professional in relation to the conduct or performance complained of;

• (b) impose on the registered professional a fine of a specified amount and failing payment by him or her of the fine to the registration body within 2 months of his or her being notified of its imposition, the Registrar may erase the person’s name from the register;

• (c) direct that during a specified period, registration of the person’s name in the register shall not have effect;

• (d) erase the person’s name from the register;

• (e) direct that the person’s name remain on the register but impose such conditions for the name remaining on the register as it considers appropriate, to be complied with by the registered professional,

and the chairperson of the Committee shall forthwith notify the person by prepaid registered post sent to the person’s address as given in the register, of the Committee’s decision, the date thereof and the reasons therefor and of the person’s right of appeal to the Appeals Board against the decision.

• (3) Without prejudice to the operation of the other provisions of this Act in relation to appeals against decisions to exercise such powers, none of the powers under subsection (2)(b) to (e) may be exercised by the Committee unless the decision to exercise the power has been confirmed by the High Court under subsection (6) or, as the case may be, on an appeal to that Court under section 26, 40 or 54 as appropriate, and then may only be exercised subject to the terms (if any) of such confirmation.

• (4) Where a registered professional appeals against a decision of the Committee to the Appeals Board within the period provided for under this Act, the decision of the Committee is stayed until the appeal is disposed of, including any period provided for a further appeal to the High Court.

• (5) Subsection (6) applies if—

• (a) no appeal under this Act is taken against the decision of the Committee mentioned in that subsection, or

• (b) (i) such an appeal taken against the decision has been disposed of and the decision has been confirmed (with or without amendment of it), and

• (ii) that confirmation is not a confirmation of the High Court under section 26, 40 or 54, as appropriate.

• (6) The Registrar may apply to the High Court for confirmation of a decision of the Committee to exercise the powers under subsection (2)(b), (c), (d) or (e) and, if the Registrar so applies, the High Court, on the hearing of the application, shall, unless it sees good reason to the contrary, declare accordingly and, where the declaration relates to a decision to exercise the powers under subsection (2)(d), either (as the Court may consider proper) direct the Registrar to erase the name of such person from the register concerned or direct that during a specified period (beginning not earlier than 7 days after the decision of the Court) registration of the person’s name in that register shall not have effect.

• (7) On erasing the name of a person from any register under this section, the Registrar shall forthwith send by prepaid registered post to such person, at the person’s address as stated in the register, notice in writing of the erasure.

• (8) Where a direction is given under this section that during a specified period registration of the name of a person in any register shall not have effect, the Registrar shall, before the commencement of that period, send by prepaid registered post to such person, at the person’s address as stated in the register, notice in writing of such direction.

• (9) The name of any person that has been erased under this section may be restored to the register concerned on the direction of the Committee, but not otherwise, and the Committee may attach such conditions as it sees fit to the restoration (including payment of a fee not exceeding the fee provided for an application for registration in the first instance).

• (10) Where the registration of a person in a register has ceased to have effect under this section for a period of specified duration, the Committee may, if it thinks fit, on application made to it by such person, by direction terminate the suspension and the Committee may attach such conditions as it sees fit to the termination (including payment of a fee not exceeding the fee provided for an application for registration in the first instance).

59. Proceedings privileged.

59.— Proceedings of or communications to or by a Professional Conduct Committee in the course of an inquiry, and reports of the Committee made in the exercise or performance of its powers, duties or functions, under this Part shall, in any action for defamation, be absolutely privileged.

PART 7 Miscellaneous Provisions

60. Temporary registration under Title II of Directive.

60.— (1) If a person intends to provide, in reliance on Article 5(2) of the Directive, architectural, quantity surveying or building surveying services in the State on a temporary and occasional basis, the person shall notify the Admissions Board of that intention and the Admissions Board shall, subject to subsection (5), on receipt of that notification, register the person in the register under Part 3, 4 or 5, as the case may be, for that purpose.

• (2) A person who notifies the Admissions Board pursuant to subsection (1) shall, if the occasion of the notification is the first occasion on which he or she intends, on foot of such a notification, to provide architectural, quantity surveying or building surveying services, as the case may be, in the State, submit the following to the Admissions Board:

• (a) a declaration of his or her intention to provide the services in accordance with Article 7 of the Directive, which declaration shall include details of insurance or other means of personal or collective protection with regard to professional liability;

• (b) proof of his or her nationality;

• (c) an attestation of the competent authority of the Member State where he or she is established that he or she is legally established in that state for the purposes of providing the activities concerned and is not prohibited from practising architecture, quantity surveying or building surveying, as the case may be, temporarily or otherwise, at the time of delivery of the attestation;

• (d) evidence of the relevant professional qualifications; and

• (e) if required by the Directive as respects an applicant who has moved from the Member State of establishment, evidence that he or she has performed functions commensurate with those of an architect, quantity surveyor or building surveyor as appropriate, in that Member State, for at least 2 of the 10 years preceding the application.

• (3) If the occasion of the notification under subsection (1) is not the first occasion on which the person concerned has intended, on foot of such a notification, to provide the relevant services in the State, the Admissions Board may, if there has been a material change in the situation substantiated by any of the documentation referred to in paragraphs (b) to (d) of subsection (2), require the person to submit to it fresh documentation of the kind referred to in the paragraph or paragraphs concerned.

• (4) If a period of more than 12 months has elapsed since the registration, pursuant to this section, of a person in the register under Part 3, 4 or 5 (and the period for which the person is so registered has not expired), the Admissions Board may, unless the person does not intend to provide the relevant services in the State in the ensuing period of 12 months, require the person to make a fresh declaration of his or her intention to provide the relevant services in accordance with Article 7 of the Directive; if the person does not make such a declaration, the Admissions Board may remove the person’s name from the relevant register.

• (5)
• (a) If a person who notifies the Admissions Board pursuant to subsection (1) fails to comply with subsection (2), or as the case may be, with a requirement under subsection (3) then, subject to paragraph (b), the Admissions Board shall decide not to register the person in the register.

• (b) The Admissions Board may, at its discretion, afford the person the opportunity to remedy the failure referred to in paragraph (a), and if the person does so within a reasonable time after being afforded that opportunity, the Admissions Board shall register the person in the register.

• (6) Where the applicant is registered in the register under Part 3 for a temporary period pursuant to this section, he or she shall use the title of architect while providing architectural services in the State until his or her registration ceases.

• (7) Where the applicant is registered in the register under Part 4 or 5 for a temporary period pursuant to this section and is providing quantity surveying or building surveying services in the State, he or she shall—

• (a) if a professional title exists for the activity or quantity surveyor or building surveyor, as the case may be, in the Member State where he or she is legally established, use that title, which shall be indicated in the official language or one of the official languages of that Member State, or

• (b) if no such professional title exists in the Member State where he or she is legally established, indicate his or her formal qualification in the official language or one of the official languages of that Member State,

in a way that avoids confusion with the title of quantity surveyor or building surveyor.

• (8) The Admissions Board may, in pursuance of Article 9 of the Directive, require a person who is registered in the register under Part 3, 4 or 5 for a temporary period pursuant to this section to furnish to a person to whom he or she provides architectural, quantity surveying or building surveying services, as the case may be, in the State all or any of the information specified in that Article.

61. Registration body may seek assistance and make rules.

61.— (1) Subject to subsection (2), a registration body may arrange with any person to assist it, or any other board or committee established under this Act, in the proper discharge of its or their functions.

• (2) A registration body shall not make an arrangement referred to in subsection (1) as respects the discharge of the functions under section 20, 34, 48 or 67 or Part 6.

• (3) Subject to subsection (4), a registration body may make rules for facilitating and carrying out its functions and the functions of the other boards and committees, including the Appeals Board, provided for under this Act.

• (4) Before making rules, the registration body shall publish a draft of the rules and circulate them to the board or committee affected for its comments.

62. Registration body may specify fees.

62.— (1) A registration body may specify that a fee of a specified amount shall be payable to it in respect of the doing of any of the following, namely:

• (a) processing applications for registration;

• (b) the annual retention of a person’s name in the register;

• (c) restoring a person’s name in the register after it has been erased pursuant to a provision of this Act;

• (d) removing a person’s name from the register on the application of that person;

• (e) entering additional qualifications, not being qualifications required for the purpose of registration, of a person in the register;

• (f) issuing a certificate of registration;

• (g) providing any other service which the registration body may provide.

• (2) A registration body may determine that in respect of the doing of any of the things referred to in subsection (1)(a) to (g) a fee of a different amount shall be payable by reference to the different circumstances in which it is done.

• (3) A fee shall not be specified in accordance with subsection (1) without the approval of the Minister.

• (4) The amount of a fee specified in accordance with subsection (1) shall not in any case exceed the total of—

• (a) the costs in providing the services in respect of which the fee is paid, and

• (b) the reasonable costs incurred by the registration body in collecting, accounting for and administering the fee.

63. Additional qualifications.

63.— (1) Subject to subsection (2) and payment of the specified fee, a person who is registered under Part 3, 4 or 5 may apply to the registration body, in the form and manner it determines, to have an additional qualification noted in the register.

• (2) The registration body shall determine what additional qualifications other than those required for registration may be noted in the register.

64. Regulations.

64.— (1) The Minister may make regulations for prescribing any matter referred to in this Act as prescribed or to be prescribed, or in relation to any matter referred to in this Act as the subject of regulations.

• (2) Regulations under this Act may contain such incidental, supplemental and consequential provisions as appear to the Minister to be necessary or expedient.

• (3) Every regulation made under this Act shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by either such House within the next 21 days on which that House has sat after the regulation is laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly but without prejudice to the validity of any previously done thereunder.

65. Correction of register.

65.— (1) For the purpose of keeping a register provided for under this Act, the Registrar thereof shall correct all verbal and clerical errors in such register, remove therefrom all entries procured by fraud or misrepresentation, enter in the register every change which comes to the Registrar’s knowledge in the addresses of registered professionals, and remove therefrom the names of all persons whose death has either been notified to, or comes to the knowledge of, the Admissions Board.

• (2) Where the Registrar takes any action under subsection (1), the Registrar shall forthwith notify the person concerned or next of kin, as the case may be, if such person can be identified, of the action taken and the reasons therefor.

66. Expenses of registration bodies, boards and committees, etc.

66.— (1) Expenditure incurred by a registration body in the performance of its functions under this Act shall be defrayed by the registration body from funds at its disposal.

• (2) There shall be paid to the chairpersons and other members of any board or committee established under this Act by a registration body such remuneration and allowances for expenses as the registration body may determine and payment of such remuneration and allowances shall be made from funds at the disposal of the registration body.

67. Prosecution of offences under this Act.

67.— (1) Summary proceedings for an offence under Part 3, 4, 5 or 6 may be brought and prosecuted by the registration body.

• (2) Notwithstanding section 10(4) of the Petty Sessions (Ireland) Act 1851, summary proceedings for an offence under this Act may be commenced—

• (a) within 12 months from the date on which the offence was committed, or

• (b) within 6 months from the date on which evidence sufficient, in the opinion of the person instituting the proceedings, to justify proceedings comes to that person’s knowledge,

whichever is later, provided that no such proceedings shall be commenced later than 5 years from the date on which the offence concerned was committed.

• (3) For the purposes of this section, a certificate signed by or on behalf of the person initiating the proceedings as to the date on which evidence referred to in subsection (2)(b) came to his or her knowledge shall be evidence of that date and, in any legal proceedings a document purporting to be a certificate under this section and to be so signed shall be admitted as evidence without proof of the signature of the person purporting to sign the certificate, unless the contrary is shown.

• (4) It shall be presumed, until the contrary is shown, that proceedings for an offence under this Act were commenced within the appropriate period.

68. Evidential value of an extract from register.

68.— (1) In any proceedings, a certificate signed by the Registrar containing only information stated to be taken from the registration records under the control of the Registrar shall be sufficient evidence of the facts stated therein, until the contrary is shown.

• (2) In any proceedings, a document purporting to be a certificate under subsection (1) shall be deemed to be such a certificate and to have been signed by the Registrar concerned, until the contrary is shown.

• (3) A certificate under this section that purports to bear a facsimile of the signature of the Registrar concerned or a copy of such signature applied by means of a stamp or produced by a computer shall be deemed for the purposes of this section to have been signed by the Registrar, until the contrary is shown.

69. Nomination to boards or committees and elections.

69.— (1) Subject to subsection (2), any persons nominated by a registration body for appointment by the registration body to a committee or board established under Part 3, 4 or 5 shall be chosen for the purposes of such nomination by means of an election in accordance with bye-laws made by the body under this section.

• (2) Subsection (1) does not apply to—

• (a) nominations for the purposes of the first appointments made by a registration body of persons to a committee or board referred to in that subsection, or

• (b) the nomination of a person by a registration body for the purposes of the person’s appointment by the body to fill a casual vacancy that arises amongst the persons the subject of those first appointments.

• (3) For the purposes mentioned in subsection (1), a registration body shall, with the consent of the Minister, make bye-laws providing for the election, by persons of the following class, of persons from among that class, namely, persons who are registered or eligible to be registered under Part 3, 4 or 5, as the case may be (and who are not excluded from that class by virtue of bye-laws under subsection (4)).

• (4) Bye-laws made by the registration body may exclude from the foregoing class any person who is not resident in the State at a specified date or who does not comply with any specified condition or requirement which the registration body considers appropriate to specify in the bye-laws for the purposes of ensuring that the bye-laws operate in a practical manner.

• (5) Bye-laws under this section shall provide that the election referred to in subsection (3) shall be held by means of a ballot and in a manner specified in the bye-laws.

• (6) Bye-laws under this section may provide for such supplemental, incidental and consequential matters as the registration body that makes them considers necessary or expedient, including the deeming of candidates to be elected without an election having to be held, where the number of persons validly selected as candidates in the proposed election is less than or equal to the number of vacancies in the board or committee to which the proposed election relates.

70. Tenure of members of boards, etc., appointed by registration body.

70.— (1) A person appointed by a registration body to be a member of a board or committee established by it under this Act shall hold office for a period of 3 years, unless he or she sooner dies or resigns.

• (2) No person appointed pursuant to a section of this Act shall hold office under that section for more than 2 consecutive terms of office.

• (3) A member of a board or committee referred to in subsection (1) may resign from office by giving notice to the registration body in writing signed by him or her and the resignation shall take effect at the next meeting of the registration body.

• (4)
• (a) Any requirement (whether as to consultation, obtaining of another’s approval or otherwise) that applies with respect to the nomination of a person for appointment to a board or committee established under this Act shall apply to the nomination of a person for appointment to fill a casual vacancy amongst the membership of the board or committee.

• (b) Where the term of office of a member of a board or committee established under this Act terminates otherwise than by reason of effluxion of time, the period of office of the person appointed to fill the vacancy occasioned by that other’s ceasing to hold office shall be specified to be the unexpired period of that other’s term of office.

• (5) The registration body may make rules specifying grounds (such as repeated absence from meetings or unacceptable professional conduct) on which a member of a board or committee referred to in subsection (1) may be removed from office and the procedure for such removal and for so long as rules under this subsection are in force such a member may be removed from office subject to and in accordance with the rules.

71. Proceedings at meetings of boards or committees.

71.— (1) A board or committee established under this Act by a registration body shall hold such meetings as it considers necessary for the performance of its functions.

• (2) The chairperson and each other member of such a board or committee shall have a vote.

• (3) At a meeting of such a board or committee, the chairperson or, in the chairperson’s absence a member chosen by those present, shall chair the meeting.

• (4) Every question at a meeting referred to in subsection (3) shall be determined by a majority of votes of members present and the chairperson shall have a casting vote in the event of an equal division.

• (5) The quorum for such a meeting shall be—

• (a) F32[5] members in the case of a Professional Conduct Committee, or

• (b) 4 members in any other case,

of which, subject to subsection (6), the majority shall be members who were nominated for appointment as members of the board or committee, as the case may be, by the Minister.

• (6) There may be reckoned for the purposes of that majority the chairperson of the board or committee, as the case may be, if he or she is present at the meeting.

• (7) An Admissions Board, Technical Assessment Board, Appeals Board or Professional Conduct Committee may perform its functions whether or not there is a vacancy in its membership and none of its proceedings are invalidated by any defect in the appointment of a member to it.

72. Functions in relation to regulations or directives of the Council of the EU or the European Parliament.

72.— A registration body, or a board or committee established under this Act by a registration body, shall carry out such additional functions as may be assigned to it, by regulation made by the Minister, in relation to the implementation of an act adopted by an institution of the European Communities with respect to the relevant profession.

73. Annual report by registration body.

73.— (1) A registration body shall, as soon as may be after the end of each year, prepare a report of its proceedings under this Act during that year.

• (2) That report shall include a copy of the body’s accounts for the year concerned in so far as they relate to its income and expenditure in respect of the performance of its functions under this Act during that year and those accounts shall be accounts that have been certified by an auditor who has been appointed to carry out an audit of them for the year concerned.

• (3) As soon as may be after the preparation of such a report, the registration body shall cause—

• (a) the report, with the copy of the foregoing accounts included in it, to be published, and

• (b) copies of the report, with the foregoing certification in respect of those accounts included in each such copy, to be made available for purchase by members of the public.

Footnotes