ACEI Presidential Message November 2025
During the Presidential campaign, an interesting issue arose where the type of work carried out by the ultimately successful candidate, and President, Ms Catherine Connolly was raised. This was in the context of Ms Connolly (a barrister), acting in her professional capacity, allegedly represented financial institutions repossessing homes of ordinary citizens. The allegation was that this type of work carried out by Ms Connolly “the barrister” appeared to conflict with the strongly held views of Ms Connolly “the socialist politician”, who opposed such actions by banks and stood firmly behind the normal citizen as a victim in this context. Ms Connolly was asked to explain this apparent Dr Geckle and Mr Hyde scenario.
I am interested in this from an ACEI perspective for two reasons. Firstly, in the context of my desire for the development of a best in class community of Consulting Engineers, led by the ACEI, it was interesting to see how the community of legal professionals responded to the above challenge of Ms Connolly. Led by Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan (also a barrister), who is on the opposing side of the political divide to Ms Connolly, the defence of Ms Connolly to act as a barrister in this context was fulsome and complete. He was 100% behind his political foe for her right to conduct her legal duties regardless of the apparent political contradiction. And while in the legal profession there is a “cab-rank” rule, which does not apply in Consulting Engineering, in essence the legal profession was “circling the wagons” and this took precedence over their opposing political perspectives. In most such circumstances, political allegiance would take precedence – not in this case though! I found this interesting and something we need to reflect on as Consulting Engineers. Protecting our profession and its reputation should also take precedence in all circumstances and that is what I would love to see, as a best in class community of professionals, who support each other first and foremost. That is an essential component of a vibrant, successful and thriving profession.
The second component of this I wish to explore, relates to Engineering parallels with Ms Connolly’s scenario i.e. Engineers choosing to perform roles that appear to be anti development. The primary role of Consulting Engineers, as per the ACEI mission statement, is to “….deliver sustainable engineering solutions for the benefit of humankind”. It goes without saying that to achieve this, there must be new construction work, whether that is the development of housing, to help solve the housing crisis, or other fundamental infrastructure to support the growing demands of our nation. How do we respond, when a client asks us to support them to block a planning permission, which we feel may be for spurious reasons, without reasonable or balanced engineering concerns? Are we happy and are we doing justice to our noble profession, when we prepare a report in support of a planning appeal in such circumstance, be that to An Coimisiún Pleanála or Judicial Review? Are we comfortable to suspend our primary duty as Consulting Engineers to apply our expertize to support development and the benefits that result for wider society, or are we comfortable to do the opposite? Food for thought I dare say and as one of my former colleagues used say “I will leave it with you”…….