The government is fighting EU health and safety regulations which would require homeowners to implement a range of measures when employing tradespeople to do work on their houses. If Brussels prevails, there will be enormous legal and cost implications for householders getting even small extensions built.

This would be a further blow to the construction industry, which has already been decimated by the recession with employment more than halving from a high of 400,000 at the peak of the boom.

Last week, the Health and Safety Authority, which operates under enterprise minister Mary Coughlan's department, sought legal advice to come up with a "practical solution" to what are very different interpretations on how the new health and safety laws are implemented for private householders.

Under the original EU directive, temporary or mobile construction sites, which would include work on private houses, became subject to rigid health and safety regulations.

These regulations would include the necessity to employ a reputable builder, develop a health and safety plan, post notices, and ensure guards and rails were in place, all of which would add considerably to the cost of the build. Homeowners could be prosecuted if they failed to abide by the regulations. The regulations also increase the risk they could be sued by a worker injured on site.

The type of work covered by the new regulations includes conversions, alterations, renovations and even "painting and cleaning work".

When transposing the legislation into Irish law in 2006, the Department of Enterprise decided that only householders getting construction work done "in the furtherance of a trade" would be subject to the new laws.

This means that a GP or dentist building a surgery for a commercial undertaking would come within the ambit of the new laws but householders getting work done on their house would be exempt.

But the EU is unhappy with this interpretation and has warned Ireland that unless it changes the definition, it could be in breach of EU law.

The Health and Safety Authority said it is "looking for a practical way to address the differences in the definition of a client".

It wants an independent study done to assess "the costs and benefits and other impacts of a range of possible solutions".

The authority lists three 'possible solutions' including, first, to adopt the EU's strict definitions or, secondly, "do nothing" and stick with Ireland's less onerous interpretation.

A third, compromise solution, is to introduce amendments to the Irish laws which would include new one-off housing in the strict new health and safety laws but "exclude construction work on existing domestic dwellings".