The Institution of Engineers of Ireland

2000

YEAR BOOK

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The Institution of Engineers of Ireland

Grace FitzGerald

Gerry Byrne, Chartered Engineer, President of IEI.

The Institution of Engineers of Ireland (IEI) is the largest professional body in Ireland. It has 17,000 members in all engineering disciplines throughout the island of Ireland, in Britain and many other parts of the world.

For over 200 years engineers have played a leading role in the development of our country, and this position was never truer than it is today. Engineering professionals occupy key positions in a wide variety of industries including:

Aeronautical
Biomedical
Building Service
Agriculture & Food
Computers
Chemical & Process
Civil
Electrical/Electronic
Energy
Extractive Mining
Fire & Safety
Industrial
Mechanical & Manufacturing
Structural.

In order to ensure the continued development of our economy and our position at the forefront of knowledge based industry, Ireland must ensure an increasing flow of high-calibre engineers into the workforce. The IEI has a fundamental role to play in ensuring that this happens. It does so in a number of ways: firstly by working closely with industry, government and its agencies, the educational establishment and other involved parties to promote engineering as a career and to develop the resources necessary to train engineering professionals.

Secondly by ensuring that the standards achieved by engineering graduates are maintained at a high level, and that engineers are encouraged to develop their knowledge and skills through ongoing education and professional development programmes.

The IEI accredits engineering degree programmes that meet the academic requirements for membership of the Institution and subsequent Chartered Membership of the IEI. Recently the IEI has launched its Continuing Professional Development Programme (CPD), the first such scheme by any professional body in Ireland. The CPD Programme will ultimately lead to the accreditation of training/development institutes and programmes in individual companies or organisations. In turn, this will provide verifiable evidence of the standard of excellence of Irish engineers.

The IEI is a signatory to international agreements which ensure that accredited engineering qualifications are acceptable in another country on the same basis as graduates from that country. This provides easy access for Irish engineers and engineering companies to work in most of the major economic areas of the world.

Aims of the IEI

The fundamental aims of the Institution are:

To promote knowledge of engineering and engineering science
To establish and maintain standards of engineering education and training
To provide opportunities for Continuing Professional Development
To maintain standards of professional ethics and conduct
To endure that the title of Chartered Engineer - CEng- and other designatory titles are confined to suitable qualified ad experienced candidates.

The membership of the IEI is organised in a number of geographic Regions and members are assigned to Divisions according to discipline. A number of Divisions have specialist sub-sets or sections.

Paddy Purcell, Chartered Engineer, Director General of IEI

Regions

Cork
London and South East (England)
Midlands
North East
Northern
North West
An Riocht
South East
Thomond
West

Divisions

Agricultural & Food
Chemical & Process
Civil
Computing - in association with the Irish Computer Society
Electrical & Electronic
Energy & Environment
Extractive Industries
Fire & Safety
Mechanical & Manufacturing

Sections (Divisions subdivided)

Biomedical
Career Development
Roads & Transportation
Structures & Construction
Water & Environmental

Societies (Special Interest Groups)

An Roth
Heritage
Geotechnical
Telecommunications
Project Management

Management

The current President of the IEI is Professor Gerry Byrne, Chartered Engineer, who is head of Mechanical Engineering at University College Dublin. The Director General is Chartered Engineer, Paddy Purcell, who heads up the team in IEI headquarters.

Secretariat of the IEI

Paddy Purcell CEng, Director General

Denis McGrath, Registrar

Marie Courtney, Deputy Registrar

Sean Connolly, Public Affairs Manager

Karen Brady, Marketing Manager

Jimmy Kinahan, Professional Development and Learning Manager

John Byrne, Finance and Services Manager

Contact:
The Institution of Engineers in Ireland,
22 Clyde Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4;
Tel: 01-668-4341;
Fax: 01-668-5508;
E-mail: info@iei.ie; Web: www.iei.ie