New National Compost Standard IS441 launched

I was invited by the Department of the Environment Community and Local Government 'Market Development Group rx3' to the launch of the first national compost standard by the Minister Phil Hogan TD and the Chief Executive of the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) Maurice Buckley Chartered Engineer.

'rx3 - Rethink Recycle Remake' was set up by the Dept of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government in 2008 to increase recycling in Ireland and to create new products and sustainable employment at home instead of exporting to Europe and Asia. The programme is for 5 years and is currently in mid cycle. The three waste materials under research focus are Paper, Plastics and Organics. Paper and Plastics are generally exported for recycling but a substantial quantity is still landfilled until better recycling infrastructure is developed in Ireland. Organic or food waste is either composted or disposed to landfill in Ireland.

Under the EU Landfill Directive sending organic or food waste to landfill is increasingly unacceptable so 'rx3' is developing alternative products and markets in Ireland for different specification composts including golf courses, public parks, playing pitches and roadside grass verges. Crop trials are currently ongoing in the soils of different counties to confirm what compost qualities work best in different soil types.

We were launching the first Irish Standard for Compost Quality - IS 441 setting out the preference for source separation of organic waste to prevent cross contamination so that a quality compost is guaranteed and can compete with Bord na Mona and other home produced composts. 

The recycling of food and garden waste into a high quality compost is important as biodegradable material (paper and food/garden waste) makes up some 60% of the normal household bin. Paper and other dry recyclables are collected in the green bin while food and other 'wet' waste is collected in the brown bin. The contents of both bins should go to recycling and the remaining black bin residual waste should be used for energy recovery in preference to landfill as the last resort.

The Minister has published a very sustainable new Draft Waste Policy which we hope to see adopted by year end so that maximum waste recycling and energy recovery can proceed in order to minimise the landfill of waste. This new policy will build on the success of the current national waste policy 'Changing Our Ways' published in 1998 which led to municipal waste recycling rising from 8% to some 38% over the past ten years through the steady implementation of the regional waste management plans.

Unfortunately there was stagnation in waste policy implementation over the period 2007 to 2011 which led to lack of investment in waste infrastructure and from which it will take Ireland many years to recover in environmental improvement terms. At least with the waste policy of the new Government which has a very strong political mandate, we can start making progress again.

 Conor McGovern Manager rx3, Olivier Gaillot Project Manager rx3, Maurice Buckley Chief  Executive of NSAI,
Minister Phil Hogan TD and PJ Rudden  President of Engineers Ireland , 

2011 Naughton Scholars Awarded

On Saturday afternoon I felt very privileged as President of Engineers Ireland to have been invited to the 2011 Award of the Naughton Scholarships in the Science Gallery in Trinity College together with Minister for Education and Skills Ruairi Quinn, new Trinity Provost Patrick Prendergast and UCD President Hugh Brady.

Minister for Education and Skills Ruairi Quinn
pictured with the 2011 Naughton Scholars

I don't say 'privileged' lightly as when I discovered the scale of the generosity of Martin and Carmel Naughton and their family, I thought it was a tremendous contribution to Irish education especially when coupled with the funding of the Naughton Institute which houses the Science Gallery and support for Education and the Arts North and South including the Naughton Chair of Business Strategy at QUB and the Millennium Wing of the National Gallery in Dublin. 

Minister Quinn at the event with Martin and Carmel Naughton

When I returned home I looked up the definition of 'philanthropy' - 'love of humanity' it said. That aptly describes my evening experience with the Naughtons and no other words would describe better what they are doing and the genuine motivation behind these Scholarships.

The Naughton Scholarships were established in January 2008 and are designed 'to promote the study of engineering, science and technology in any publicly funded university or third level institution in Ireland including Northern Ireland. The scholarships initially served counties Louth, Meath, Monaghan, Cavan, Donegal and Mayo with Leitrim and Sligo this year and extending to Longford and Roscommon next year.

In 2011, 16 secondary school students from 8 counties are funded for 3 years. The Gold Scholarship in each county is for €16,000 and the Silver is for €8,000 together with Science Laboratory equipment funding for each winning school. Most of the winners appeared to have achieved an extraordinary number of A1s in the Leaving Certificate. (See attached press release for the names of winners).

Apart from the scale of the funding, I could clearly see that the entire family of Martin and Carmel were present to assist on the night including sons, daughters, sons in law and daughters in law - all of them genuinely committed to work for the students and their families.

Martin himself in a modest speech spoke of the business he started in Newry with 7 employees in 1973. He acquired Dimplex in 1977 moving to a new base in Dunleer Co Louth where the headquarters remains.

The Glen Dimplex Group is now global with subsidiaries in Europe, US, Canada, China, Japan and New Zealand and current staff of 8,500 and annual turnover in excess of €1.5billion. They are now the largest electrical heating manufacturers in the world incorporating well known brands like Morphy Richards, Belling, Roberts Radio and Creda.

Master of Ceremonies on the night was Fergal Naughton Deputy CEO of Glen Dimplex. Fergal is a Chartered Engineer with Engineers Ireland having qualified with a BA BAI from Trinity in 1998 which he followed with an MSc in Engineering from Stanford and an MBA from Harvard.

The award to this year's Naughton Scholars was an extraordinary event the value of which in Engineering Science and Technology Education terms made a big impression on me. It was all started by Martin and Carmel Naughton who know the true value of what they are doing for Education on the island of Ireland.

Having met them, I salute their 'love of humanity' and their human interest in all who are lucky to cross their path in life.

September Council Meeting

On Saturday morning last we had our September Council meeting with a very full attendance from around the country and a full Agenda.

For me, the two highlights of the meeting were the presentation by Tom Leahy of Dublin City Council on the joint Engineers Ireland/Irish Academy of Engineering submission to Government on the setting up of Irish Water and secondly the unanimous approval of Council to our Advertising Campaign for Chartered Engineer going live on TV, radio and social media in November of this year.

Tom Leahy is a wonderful presenter. He really brought the whole national infrastructural deficit in water alive for us in a most illustrative way. Our water supply scheme in Dublin for instance dates from Victorian times so that it is close on 150 years old. When it was 100 years old in the 70s and 80s like the aging human, it needed urgent remedial work which it really didn't get as our EU Funding then went into 'playing catch up' with Dublin's expansion and massive regional development around our major cities and towns.

In the 80s and 90s water expenditure in Dublin was going into the then new Western Towns of Blancherstown/Castleknock, Clondalkin/Lucan and Tallaght/Firhouse. At the same time both domestic rates and water charges were abolished for political reasons - both mindless crazy decisions at the time from which Local Government funding in Ireland never really recovered.

As Tom told us, you can imagine the state in which our Water Infrastructure is in now! It needs an urgent rescue and therefore the transfer of the infrastructural planning and implementation function to a new dedicated national water utility. This new body will have a commercial remit and the introduction of use related charges through metering is most welcome as a 'new start' in terms of funding.

The current system is broken and therefore does need fixing and soon. The Dublin water supply in particular is on a 'knife edge' supply wise as the recent harsh winters have shown and needs urgent addressing in terms of strong demand management, increased water conservation and development of a new major supply source from the Shannon basin.

The second presentation was jointly given by Margie McCarthy Membership Director and Fionnuala Kilbane Communications Director on the recent Membership Survey on our perceived deficits and how we will address them. Members surveyed say we need to increase our public profile and explain what is the role of the Chartered Engineer to the general public.

Well we are about to do just that as on Saturday we approved a 2 to 3 year campaign on TV, radio and social media to highlight the critical role that Chartered Engineers play in the Irish Economy.

To the music of 'This Land is Your Land This Land is My Land' the short TV advert will profile a selected cross section of our Member Engineers doing what we as a profession do - building new roads and bridges, prolonging human life in hospitals through biomedical engineering, building and maintaining our energy supplies, our water supply and manufacturing new electronic, computing and pharmaceutical products that make up the bulk of our exports. Expect to see the new campaign on your screens by middle of November!

The Council also took a decision to change the name of the 'ICT Division' in Engineers Ireland to the 'Computing Division' which makes a lot of sense as we want to show increased relevance and purpose to that growing sector of our economy.

Making Dublin a Smarter City

John Power and I visited Dublin City Council on Friday last for their celebration of 10 years as a CPD Accredited Engineering Employer with Engineers Ireland.

We were greeted by the Lord Mayor Cllr Andrew Montague and Michael Phillips City Engineer and Director of Traffic. The Keynote Speaker at the event was Minister of Education and Skills Ruairi Quinn introduced by Tom Leahy Executive Manager Engineering and CPD Director at Dublin City Council.

There was a very impressive Public Exhibition in the Atrium of City Hall of the role that Engineering and in particular that Engineers play in maintaining the lives of the citizens of Dublin. So much of it taken as a given by the general public, except when things go wrong. What would happen if our Engineers failed to produce clean water in our taps, sufficient water quantity and pressure to fight fires, prevent flooding in our streets after heavy rain or high tides, ensure traffic flow, maintain adequate street lighting at night, safe roads and bridges, waste recycling and the overall emergency services.  Also on display, was a most detailed and impressive model of the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) that was used in the construction of the Dublin Port Tunnel (2001 - 2006) at an overall cost of €750millon.

The exhibition wasn’t only about the 'present' in Dublin but about the 'future' also. Innovation Dublin is a showcase of future municipal services automation in partnership with IBM to make Dublin more 'resource efficient' and a Smarter City.

Dublin sees itself as a Sustainable City and Dublin City Council sees itself as that Agent for Change in terms of Sustainability. This is expressed in terms of 6 specific objectives - Urban Form, Movement, Economic/Jobs, Social, Cultural and Environmental. All contribute to a modern design-led New Urban Space that is Dublin.

There are ambitious infrastructural plans for the future of Dublin including finding a new major water supply river source, city centre district heating from a new waste to energy plant and a tidal barrage at the mouth of the Liffey if or when there is increased flooding due to climate change effects.

From Left to Right: Michael Philips Director of Traffic & City Engineer Dublin City Council,
John Power Director General Engineers Ireland, Lord Mayor of Dublin Andrew Montague, 
PJ Rudden President of Engineers Ireland, Minister for Education and Science Ruairi Quinn, T.D
and Tom Leahy Executive Manager, Engineering Department Dublin City Council.

Gerry O'Connell of the CPD Team kindly gave me a visit to the Traffic Control Centre from where all signalling at Junctions in the city is controlled using CCTV and traffic models to comply with the City Traffic Management Plan, and are all connected to our local radio stations around the city - Another 24/7 operation overseen by engineers.

I had a special interest in all of this because my first job after my graduation was with the Water Department of Dublin City Council as Graduate Engineer. I worked for 3 years in the principal water treatment plant at Ballymore Eustace firstly as a Graduate then as Executive Engineer where I gained my first valuable engineering and industrial relations experience as that too was a 24/7 operation to produce a sufficient supply of clean and safe drinking water at all times.

I left Dublin City Council feeling that it was in good engineering hands with Michael Phillips, Tom Leahy and their staff. They do a terrific job in keeping all of the services in the City running.

Chartered Biomedical Engineer is new Trinity Provost

I had the pleasant task on Monday of accepting the kind invitation to attend the Inaugural Address of the new Provost of Trinity College Professor Patrick Prendergast, a biomedical/mechanical engineer and native of Co Wexford. He will serve a 10 year term as Provost.

He is the 44th Provost of Trinity and was Professor of Bioengineering from 2007 to 2011. He is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of Engineers Ireland - the second Chartered Engineer to head an Irish University following in the footsteps of Dr Jim Browne current President in NUIG. Both of them incidentally qualified as Mechanical Engineers.

Paddy graduated in Mechanical Engineering in 1983 and later with a PhD in Bioengineering. He then did research in Italy and the Netherlands before returning to lecture in Trinity in 1995. Together with colleagues in Engineering, Dentistry, Medicine and Physiology he established the Trinity Centre for Bioengineering in 2002.

Prof Prendergast's research is in the area of medical device technologies where he has developed well known theories on mechanoregulation of tissue behaviour. He has significant industrial collaboration in implant design and development including his role on the board of Clearstream Technologies plc who manufacture stents and catheters for the medical device market.

His Address was inspiring. It concentrated on the global position of Trinity and the need for increased 'research based education.' Education should be based on outputs not inputs in terms of teaching hours, he said. Universities delivering quality education to large numbers of students could be significant creators of jobs.

'A recent survey of employer expectations showed that employers of our graduates value critical and independent thinking, excellent communications skills and students who have developed a capacity for responsibility and initiative through extra curriculum activities' he stated. This sounds like the modern definition of what the products of a modern university should be.

'Students who are even wiser than they were yesterday; students engaged in lifelong learning, who are sound in their foundations but not stuck in their opinions; that's what we want. That's who will reap most private benefit and who will sow most public good' he said.

All in all as I listened to the new Provost setting out his vision it sounded like the 21st century vision for Third Level Education - a lot like the modern day John Henry Newman who in the 1800s wrote world famous English prose on describing the ideal university and indeed the ideal gentlemen - bizarrely ladies did not go to university in the 19th century!

All of us in Engineers Ireland wish this highly talented Engineer now Provost of Trinity College every success in his challenging new role over the next 10 years.



Professor of Bio-Engineering and Newly elected Provost at Trinity College Dublin,
Professor Patrick Prendergast (Trinity College Dublin)