Annual Conference opens in Titanic Belfast

Last night the Engineers Ireland Annual Conference opened in Belfast at a reception hosted by the Northern Region of Engineers Ireland and was attended by the High Sheriff of Belfast.

The Northern Region Chairman Peter Quinn welcomed the delegates to the Europa Conference Centre and introduced the Chairman of the Titanic Trust, Jonathan Hegan, and CEO of Titanic Quarter, Mike Smith. Mike Smith gave a fascinating outline of the planning financing construction and fitting out of the new Titanic Belfast visitor centre that delegates will visit this evening before the conference dinner at Belfast City Hall.

Peter Quinn Chairman Northern Region Engineers Ireland, PJ Rudden President Engineers Ireland, May Campbell High Sheriff of Belfast, Don McQuillan Director RPS Structural Designer of Titanic Belfast and Jonathan Hegan Chairman of the Titanic Trust

It was a mammoth task to get Titanic Belfast built on time for the centenary of the Titanic story in April 2012. Getting work started on time in 2009 was challenging, as the world financial crisis impacted adversely on financing of the new centre. The developers at Titanic Quarter overcame their difficulties with the help of the architects firm Todd Associates, RPS Consulting Engineers and EC Harris Project Managers, resulting in the centre opening on time last month.

Jonathan described the combination of pride and humility with which they have celebrated the opening of Titanic Belfast which has attracted over 80,000 visitors already since its opening three weeks ago.

In thanking the Northern Region and the Titanic Trust for the reception and talks on Titanic Belfast, I welcomed all the delegates and hoped that the conference would be stimulating technically and exciting to see the iconic new Signature Building which is in the shape of a white star, each corner of which is a replica of the hull of the ship itself.

The conference will focus on the Manufacturing tradition of Belfast, now transformed from shipbuilding into the manufacture of turbines and other engineering components for the Offshore Energy industry, which are now taking place in part of the regenerated Harland & Wolff Shipyard in the middle of the new Titanic Quarter.

This morning I will open the conference on Harnessing and Developing Creativity followed by Dr Stephen Myers of CERN Accelerator Laboratory in Switzerland and Alex Attwood MLA Minister for the Environment in Northern Ireland.

Then we will hear leading speakers from the Irish Energy industry including John Barry MD of Bord Gáis Networks and Bob Hanna Chief Technical Adviser in the Dept of Communications Energy and Natural Resources in Dublin.

It's great to be in Belfast on such a wonderful occasion and see the attraction it has become on the strength of the new democratic institutions here.

I'm especially delighted with the number of our members who have come from Cork, Limerick, Clare, Galway, Sligo and all along the west coast of Ireland to share in this national occasion in Belfast.

Cycling the Mayo Greenway and viewing Jackie Clarke Library

I was recently in Castlebar at the retirement function for Joe Beirne who retired as Mayo County Engineer. Joe is the last of the County Engineers who were appointed before Better Local Government (BLG) was brought to bear on the local authority system. BLG appears to have brought local government closer to the people with local delivery offices offering a 'one stop shop' and Directors of Services providing both technical and administrative services in specialist areas across an entire county. Engineers as professionals have also got their fair share of Directors posts and many have graduated to County Manager level.

There is also though now a widespread feeling among local authorities that the demise of the County Engineer was a mistake! A number of County Managers have said this to me over the intervening period some of whom admit were strong supporters of the new BLG system at the time. The principal issue is that the County Manager does not now have the very senior expertise and experience of a Chief Technical Officer to make strategic decisions of a technical nature and the quality of local government is the poorer for it I feel. The only two local authorities to have retained the City or County Engineer post are Dublin City Council and Cork County Council and certainly nobody I know in either of these local authorities would now countenance the removal of these posts.

Joe Beirne was a very talented engineer, team leader and a thorough gentleman. I wish him the very best in his well deserved retirement and was delighted to be in Castlebar to wish him well on behalf of Engineers Ireland.

When I was in Mayo I accepted an invitation from the West Region Past Chairman Muredach Tuffy to cycle the newly opened Great Western Greenway from Newport to Mulranny - some 18km. At the Newport end we also met the Secretary of the North West Region Rowan O'Callaghan who was also cycling the Greenway with his family.

Collecting bicycles at Newport for cycle to Mulranny with North West 
 Region Secretary Rowan O’Callaghan and Past Chairman West Region Muredach Tuffy

The Greenway runs from Achill to Westport has been designated as part of the European Centre of Excellence Network (EDEN). I had only heard of this European Designation in Carlingford Co Louth a few weeks back. The Greenway runs the line generally of the Great Western Railway from Mulranny to Westport so that the vistas of Crew Bay and Croagh Patrick from the old railway are now reopened to the cycling tourists.

Map of the Great Western Greenway

The Mayo Great Western Greenway already has an annual tourist footfall of 150,000 which is quite phenomenal before this summer season even commences. There are four bike stations at Achill Mulranny Newport and Westport where you can get all the gear. They will even retrieve your bicycle from any of the four Stations.

With Muredach Tuffy on one of the many new bridges 

on the Mayo Greenway with historic arch bridge in background

Mayo County Council wants to be the Walking and Cycling County of Ireland and I can see why. For many years successive County Development Plans have set out this vision and developed routes in Bangor Belmullet Westport and Delphi. The current County Manager Peter Hynes and his predecessor Des Mahon are very supportive of the potential to realise this valuable tourist resource for the benefit of the local economy. I thoroughly enjoyed my few hours spent on the Greenway and we were lucky with the weather too. I highly commend this sporting pastime to all with a keen interest in the wide open spaces.

The Greenway also leads onto a Smarter Transport initiative which is being planned around Westport which already is one of our leading tourist towns nationally.

PJ Rudden President of Engineers Ireland in Ballina 

with Jackie Clarke Museum Director Sinead McCoole 

and West Region Past Chairman Muredach Tuffy

When in Mayo, I also visited the Jackie Clarke Library and Museum with Museum Director Sinead McCoole in Ballina where an impressive collection of historic papers are being catalogued. It tells of the story of County Mayo through the local newspapers spanning some 400 years but mostly the 20th century covering the 1916 Rising and the foundation of the modern state.

Overlooking the River Moy in Ballina with new Salmon Weir in the background

When in Ballina I also viewed the new pedestrian bridge over the Moy River and the newly refurbished Salmon Weir on the Moy.

County Mayo has an amazing number of natural and modern amenities to engage the visiting tourist. It also has the stunning landscapes of the Nephin Mountains, Ballycroy National Park, Lough Conn and Lough Mask and the whole Cong/Ashford area where the epic film 'The Quiet Man' was made starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.

Energy and Environment Division Lunch with Minister Rabbitte

The Energy and Environment Division of Engineers Ireland hosted Pat Rabbitte TD Minister for Communications Energy and Natural Resources to a Lunch Meeting at Clyde Road.

The Chairman of the Division Jim Gannon together with the Director General John Power and myself welcomed the Minister who indeed had also launched our State of Ireland Infrastructure Report last February.

Pictured outside 22 Clyde Road were Director General John Power, Chairman of Energy and Environment Division, Jim Gannon, Minister Pat Rabbitte TD, President of Engineers Ireland,

PJ Rudden and Liam O’Cleirigh Energy & Environment Division Member

There was a very large attendance of energy engineers at the meeting drawn from the public and private sectors. The Minister gave a very significant speech on Irish Energy Policy set in the context of our international obligations and the current fiscal limitations.

Before his speech I welcomed the Minister and underlined how critically important Engineers Ireland considered Energy Policy and Development as key infrastructure to further grow the economy. I also referred to our recent Infrastructure Report which he helped us launch during Engineers Week in February.

The Minister then spoke about the fundamentals of Government energy policy in Ireland - 'If the growth agenda is fundamental to Europe's sustainable recovery strategy, energy policy has a pivotal role to play in creating the conditions for a return to economic recovery and job creation. The well being of our country and society depends on safe, secure, sustainable and affordable energy......

Ireland can benefit from a low carbon economy based around radically increased energy efficiency, accelerated deployment of renewable energy, smart networks and a well functioning, well interconnected internal energy market.....we have a rich and abundant wind and ocean energy potential which I firmly believe can be harvested and exported as a real economic opportunity for this island.....

Expert advice suggests that Ireland has the capability to achieve its national targets for renewable electricity from onshore renewable generation alone with capacity to spare. This means that our offshore wind resource can be developed as an export opportunity.......

There is a real opportunity to develop offshore wind in the Irish Sea area in the short term as these are reasonably close to both coastlines and in relatively shallow waters.... with cost advantages over the North Sea area........'

The Minister was very strongly in favour of renewable energy onshore to meet our targets and offshore for export purposes. He also stated that the lack of a North South Interconnector was costing the Irish consumers and looked forward to its early construction together with completion of the East West Interconnector. He stated that 'development of the high voltage electricity grid as planned in the GRID25 strategy is critical to our long term economic recovery.’

He looked forward to the EU Presidency when the alignment of Energy, ICT and Innovation will be highlighted to unlock new potential for investment and employment. He was also anxious that Ireland seizes the competitive advantage within Europe as a prime location for energy research and innovation.

We in Engineers Ireland were left in no doubt that the Minister clearly favours our balanced view of Energy Policy as outlined in our State of Ireland Infrastructure Report and that he is not for turning on current national targets and projects as they are essential to assist our national recovery. It had been a most interesting and revealing meeting.

New Engineers Ireland Byelaws adopted

A huge number of issues and decisions were taken at our recent April Council meeting. Apart from a new corporate Strategy, election of a new Vice President, we also adopted new Byelaws to replace the last Byelaws enacted in 2003. These Byelaws updated the governance procedures for election to Council and Executive. These give the President increased powers for the co-option of new members to broaden the representation to newer sectors and to reduce the traditional dominance of civil engineers on the Council of Engineers Ireland. In this way other sectors like biomedical chemical computing aeronautical and electronic engineers will get a stronger voice and hopefully will be encouraged to join Engineers Ireland. I would expect that the ongoing TV advert for Chartered Engineer would also help.

Engineers Ireland Headquarters at Clyde Road

The additional cooption discretion will also help to address gender balance and encourage younger members onto Council. During my year as President we brought the Chairperson of the Young Engineers Society onto both Council and Executive for the first time.

We also removed the absolute necessity that future Director Generals of Engineers Ireland have to be Chartered Engineers although the preference for this has been retained. This was a contentious item only settled by secret ballot at Council earlier in the year.

I want to pay tribute to former President Anne Butler who chaired the Byelaws Task Force which also had Domhnall Blair, Mairín Ní Aonghusa, Sean Linehan and Tanya Layng. Domhnall has an encyclopedic knowledge of Engineers Ireland byelaws and procedures from his many years on Council and greatly assisted by Mairín who is former Secretary to many Councils, Executives and Director Generals.

Having passed the new Byelaws we then decided to proceed with this year's Council Election in accordance with them. In this way next year's Council were elected and procedures put in place to elect next year's Executive Board which is the new title we have given the Executive.

Embedded in the new Byelaws are the new Membership Rules, the relatively new Code of Ethics and new Guidelines for Committees and Boards for Regions, Divisions and Societies.

At this Council also we approved the audited Annual Accounts for the Annual Report and six candidates for Fellowship by Presidential Invitation.

As it was former President Martin Lowery's last Council meeting I sincerely thanked him for his hard work on Council for 4 years, his year as a very wise President and for his great assistance to me over the past year in particular. I also thanked the two Vice Presidents Michael Phillips and John O'Dea for their support at Council and at all other times.

All in all, this April Council meeting which was my last as President concluded a lot of important business which will set a roadmap for the years ahead. I am most grateful to the Council and Executive for the workmanlike and constructive fashion with which they addressed the various issues over the past year.

New Vice President Elected

At the April Council meeting I nominated Regina Moran CEO of Fujitsu Ireland as the next Vice President of Engineers Ireland. She was unanimously endorsed.

Regina will thus become the third female President of Engineers Ireland in May 2014 in succession to Dr. John O'Dea who will take over from Michael Phillips as President in 2013.

Regina Moran CEO of Fujitsu
Courtesy of Fujitsu Ireland

In May 2009, Regina was appointed CEO of Fujitsu Ireland where she leads a 350 strong team focussed on delivering ICT services to the Irish marketplace.

Following her third level education in Engineering undertaken in Waterford and Cork, Regina’s career began as an Electronics Engineer with Amdahl, a computer mainframe manufacturer, progressing to become a co-founder of the services and consulting group there.

In 1997, Regina was co-founder of DMR Consulting Ireland where she held the role of Director of Operations responsible for Project Delivery. DMR Consulting became Fujitsu Consulting and subsequently merged with Fujitsu Services in April 2004 and Regina was appointed CEO of Fujitsu Services in August 2006.

Regina is the current Chair of ICT Ireland within IBEC, a Member of the Council of Dublin Chamber of Commerce and a member of Dublin City University governing authority. She is a Fellow of Engineers of Ireland (FIEI) and a non-Executive Director of EirGrid. Regina holds an MBA from Dublin City University, which she achieved with First Class Honours, coming first in her group. She was also awarded the ‘Sir Charles Harvey Award’ for outstanding contribution in her post-graduate studies. She is married with three children and is an enthusiastic Munster Rugby supported.

We welcome Regina as our new Vice President and look forward to her experience and expertise. She represents one of the significant areas of the growth economy where major players like Fujitsu are an excellent example of foreign direct investment in the technology sector into Ireland. In Engineers Ireland, we hope to grow our role more into the Computing / Technology sector in the years ahead and are delighted that our former President Dr Chris Horn ex Iona Technologies continues to chair our Computing Division. In addition, we elected Stephen McIntyre to our Council during the year. Stephen was a Senior Director at Google in Dublin and was recently appointed CEO of Twitter Europe Operations still based in Dublin.