ACEI President, Anne-Marie Conibear, (Egis in Ireland (formerly JB Barry and Partners), James Kavanagh (Varming Consulting Engineers Ltd.) and Shane Dempsey met with Minister Paschal Donohoe to present its budget submission.
ACEI members are reporting a significant slowdown in the bringing forward of critical infrastructure projects in the pipeline. Agencies like Uisce Éireann Irish Water, Transport Infrastructure Ireland that are delivering infrastructure need multi-annual budgeting so the industry can gear up and respond to their demands.
In addition, the ACEI requested that the Government take a fraction of the NDP budget and allocate it to initiatives that digitalise the entire construction industry, supports ‘green’ construction and the recruitment of talent into the engineering sector.
Finally, the ACEI reiterated its request that the Government allow net contribution clauses in public sector contracts. This will end the unfair situation where design professionals are held entirely liable for the mistakes of others.
RiNord meeting enjoys spectacular Faroese welcome
The Nordic associations of consulting engineers met last week for a lively programme of work, sharing of best practice and innovative engineering projects and networking, with EFCA Director General Sue Arundale joining as a guest. With an impossibly beautiful and unspoiled landscape – and unusually consistently pleasant weather – the associations tackled some emerging challenges, common to the Nordic countries, but also relevant to the rest of the consulting engineering sector in Europe. The Faroese hosts offered a tour of the jaw-dropping tunnel connecting some of the islands, which – amongst other features – has the world’s deepest underwater roundabout. Followed by further site visits to another tunnel still under construction and a new indoor sports arena, due to open in February 2025, participants were enthralled by the engineering and construction projects, as well as by the warm hospitality of the small island population. Another remarkable and effective, but less “high-tech” construction method is the use of grass roofs, a traditional technique which offers a fantastic nature-based solution to a very modern problem, namely building insulation with a sustainable use of materials. More detail will be provided in a special feature, to be published in the coming weeks, in Construction Europe. In the meantime, the video in the link below, contains more information about the tunnel. More information is available here.
New Working Group on AI and Energy Consumption
Yesterday, EFCA’s new Working Group held its kick-off meeting, with a first discussion on how to tackle the trade-off between the potential benefits of AI on the one hand and its energy consumption on the other. The energy intensive nature of data centres, quantum computing etc., has provoked discussion in recent months and consulting engineers decided to tackle the issue head on. The Working Group will consider several questions over the coming months, with a view to making recommendations for potential solutions. The starting point is that we need to embrace the emerging technology, but not to the extent that the costs far outweigh the benefits. The Group is a collaboration between EFCA’s relevant Committees, with other experts also joining. One of the first talking points yesterday was the lack of baselines, in terms of how much energy data centres are actually using. The Group aims to produce recommendations before the end of the year. More information is available here.
The full newsletter is available here.
The Office of Government Procurement (OGP) has updated the Procurement Policy – Goods and Services section of the OGP website. This revised page sets out, in a more accessible manner, the suite of information and resources that are available to public buyers. The page is aimed at:
- Making it easier for public buyers to find the resources that the OGP has developed
outlining current national policy and signposting future policy initiatives - Presenting the legislative and administrative frameworks
- Encouraging the use of strategic public procurement (including green, social and innovation).
The most recent IAE report ‘Climate Change Won’t Wait – Delivery of Renewable Energy Urgent’ prepared by a working group of the Infrastructure Standing Committee is available here – IAE_DeliveryofRenewableEnergyUrgent
IAE Reports can also be found in the “Publications” section of the Academy website www.iae.ie
Strategic Agenda in line with EFCA’s priorities
The Council has adopted its strategic agenda for 2024-2029, emphasising key priorities which could have come straight out of the EFCA election manifesto supplement, published earlier this year. Enhancing EU competitiveness (we highlighted EU autonomy); a stronger focus on innovation (we want more scope for ground breaking technical solutions in large public contracts); supporting the green and digital transition through infrastructure investments (our top concern). And as EU citizens spend a summer avoiding ear-shattering thunder storms and worry about flooded basements and aquaplaning home on waterlogged motorways, the Council plans to pressure the EU Commission to act on the Water Resilience Initiative. EFCA has put climate adaptation and reinforcing nature’s own infrastructure at the heart of its own position paper on the Blue Deal and along with 29 other organisations, had urged the Council to prioritise water in the upcoming mandate, recognising its importance for a prosperous and competitive Europe and the resilience of the economy. We welcome the Strategic Agenda and are looking forward to the new political term getting properly underway after the summer break. More information here.
Strategic Agenda in line with EFCA’s priorities
The Council has adopted its strategic agenda for 2024-2029, emphasising key priorities which could have come straight out of the EFCA election manifesto supplement, published earlier this year. Enhancing EU competitiveness (we highlighted EU autonomy); a stronger focus on innovation (we want more scope for ground breaking technical solutions in large public contracts); supporting the green and digital transition through infrastructure investments (our top concern). And as EU citizens spend a summer avoiding ear-shattering thunder storms and worry about flooded basements and aquaplaning home on waterlogged motorways, the Council plans to pressure the EU Commission to act on the Water Resilience Initiative. EFCA has put climate adaptation and reinforcing nature’s own infrastructure at the heart of its own position paper on the Blue Deal and along with 29 other organisations, had urged the Council to prioritise water in the upcoming mandate, recognising its importance for a prosperous and competitive Europe and the resilience of the economy. We welcome the Strategic Agenda and are looking forward to the new political term getting properly underway after the summer break. More information here.
Announcement expected in September
EFCA is proud to have received a nomination in the seventh annual Benelux Enterprise Awards! The Awards 2024 celebrate businesses of all sizes and sectors across the region, from innovative startups to established industry leaders. This initiative honours the diverse businesses driving the region’s economy, recognising their contributions regardless of sector or size. The final winners of the awards will be announced in September 2024, but even just to be acknowledged is an honour and we look forward to finding out! More information here.
EFCA Newsletter is taking a break – returning on 5 September! Have a wonderful and relaxing summer!
JB Barry and Partners, the long-established and Dublin-headquartered consultant engineering firm, is rebranding as Egis following its acquisition by the French-headquartered global engineering and operations group. Read all about it here.
The launch of the Supporting the Circular Economy Transition in the Irish Construction Sector document took place on 8 July 2024 with Minister of State, Ossian Smith.
This document sets out a sectoral perspective on why the Irish construction sector needs to understand and embed circular economy principles and provides initial recommendations for all in the sector, be they from industry, government departments and agencies, local authorities, NGOs, academia, or others to start the process of bringing circular economy thinking into the mainstream of construction and demolition practice across buildings and infrastructure.
The full document can be accessed here.
This year will see the launch of Griffiths & Armour’s latest publication, ‘Constructing Change –
Evolving the Status Quo or Time to Reset’. The document follows extensive engagement with our clients and other interested parties over the past 18-months and examines key challenges facing the construction, insurance and legal sectors, whilst also recognising the opportunity to deliver real change.
Read more about Griffiths & Armour’s work with The Association of Consulting Engineers of Ireland (ACEI) Here.
There has been an update to the software on the eTenders platform, which took place on 1st July 2024. The update to the platform software provides enhancements in the following areas:
- Changes to eForms Notices
- Enhancement of CPV alerting for Suppliers
- Enhancement to layout of email notifications for business alerts
- Improvements to the DPS Workflow to support offline evaluations
- Removal of requirement for supplier approval of a contract
- Multi-page selection of Contracting Authorities within FWA / DPS / QS
- URL Redirect for notification emails issued from the platform
Please review the release notes here.
A new report published by the Irish Academy of Engineering “Small Modular Reactors – Ireland needs to consider SMRs to achieve a zero-carbon energy sector by 2050” prepared by the Energy & Climate Action Standing Committee is available here.