Engineers Ireland's Annual Report for 2022 was approved at the organisation's AGM on June 1, 2023 and is available here.  

One of the highlights of the year was the paying membership number remained above 19,000. Reflecting the diversity of engineering talent, the new members that joined during the year represented 61 countries.

The achievement of delivering 237 CPD events including 28 new specialist courses and 251 Sector events (the vast majority free of charge), with almost 15,000 Sector-member attendees, represents a significant achievement by the team in Clyde Road; this was against a backdrop of the uncertainty of a re-opening economy as pandemic restrictions eased.

Key highlights

• Organisation has 26,453 members;
• Hosted the International Engineering Alliance in Killarney;
• 193 engineering programmes are currently accredited by organisation in Ireland’s HEIs;
• Minister Michael McGrath TD addressed decarbonisation-focused National Conference;
• Minister Simon Harris TD attended National Conferring;
• 7,940 delegates attended a total of 237 CPD learning events;
• Engineering Barometer report showed that 81% of engineering managers planned to recruit engineers in 2022;
• Organisation now part of a three-year Erasmus project titled Engineers4Europe;
• Excellence through People platinum certification achieved;
• Investors in Diversity Bronze standard achieved;
• National Investing in Volunteers Standard achieved once again by STEPS;
• 14 new AMPLIFIED podcasts;
• LinkedIn account (company page) followers: 42,239 (up 7,000);
• Media coverage included This Week on RTÉ Radio 1, EcoEye and The Today Show on RTÉ One & Newstalk Breakfast;
• Engineers Ireland was recertified for six years for the International Professional Engineers;
• Agreement (which supports recognition of professional engineering competence for international mobility);
• More than 170,000 pupils directly interacted with STEPS in 2022.

President Power's review of term of office 

In looking back on my year as president of this wonderful institution and on the honour bestowed on me, I can’t help but think what an extraordinary privilege it has been and how humbled I feel at the end of a year that has passed in the blink of an eye.

So much has happened since 2 June 2022, when I was inaugurated at the AGM that evening, that will stay with me for the rest of my life. As a past director general of Engineers Ireland, I thought I had a good appreciation of what might have been involved in the presidency – not so – one must experience it directly to fully appreciate what’s involved.

The abiding memory I will take from the year is very easy to identify – it’s the extraordinary people I have met during the year. All engineers and volunteers who have made a huge contribution to their families, places of employment, their communities and to the engineering profession; without them, Engineers Ireland and our country would be so much the poorer.

President John Power is pictured at our National Conference on October 19, 2022, with Session One contributors Dr Eddie O’Connor, chair of SuperNode; Paul Stein, CBE, chair of Rolls-Royce SMRs; and Róisín Quinn, OBE, director of Customer Connections, National Grid, England and Wales.

Emerging from the impact of Covid-19, as we were in June of last year, I embarked on my presidency with excitement and hope in the knowledge that engineers and engineering, more than any other profession, were the ones doing most for the betterment of society, notwithstanding challenges such as Brexit, an energy trilemma, inflation, etc.

In my presidential address on September 29, 2022, I highlighted the extraordinary contribution engineering has made to mankind and continues to do. I began by referencing the advances made following the Great Flu of the early 20th century and the possibilities of similar developments post Covid-19 in the early 21st century. Time will tell.

Following a reminder of the progress made in Ireland over the last 60 years, I concluded by referring to some of the opportunities and challenges for Ireland and Engineers Ireland in the near future – capitalising on our marine potential, impacting on our policy advisers and decision makers and growing Engineers Ireland’s paying membership by 5,000. The need for a more realistic approach from our political masters to the environmental and energy crisis facing Ireland was also highlighted. 

In the early months of my presidency, attention was focused on the appointment of our next director general, culminating in the appointment of Damien Owens in October 2022. We all wish Damien every success in the role.

"During this time I also took the opportunity to meet the staff in Clyde Road and a number of our Divisions as well as interviewing for radio, TV, magazines and journals.

"Our 2022 national conference, the first in-person conference we were able to enjoy for a number of years was a great success. With a theme of 'Engineering in a time of Challenge: Innovation, Decarbonisation and the Role of Engineers', the broad range of domestic and international contributors left us all with much food for thought.

"Prior to Christmas, among the many additional memorable events were the CEng of the Year and other award ceremonies; the Defence Forces Corps of Engineers Dinner and some Regional functions; the visits of the International Engineering Alliance delegates; the ICE presidential address from Ed McCann and welcoming the Uisce Éireann (Irish Water) engineering team to Clyde Road.

"The post-Christmas period and the lead into the AGM is the busiest time for any president and this year was no exception. I enjoyed a number of meetings with our fellow engineering organisations with whom we have so much in common, ie the Irish Academy of Engineering and the Association of Consulting Engineers of Ireland.

"Our presence at the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition kicked off the January 2023 activities and proved most successful. Deciding on the nominee for the next vice presidential vacancy and the selection of candidates for the Presidential Invitations to Fellowship as well as some Regional visits preceded a very welcome return of the President’s Ball on January 27, 2023 – a most enjoyable event attended by nearly 600 engineers, their partners and guests.

"The annual Sir Bernard Crossland lecture held in association with our Northern Region at Queen’s University is always a great event as is our Cork Regional Branch Dinner which was attended by finance minister Michael McGrath TD and enterprise minister Simon Coveney TD, as well as other dignitaries from Cork, thus facilitating very welcome engagement and discussion for us. This time also marks the beginning of the final quarter of the presidential year. Compliments to our membership team for initiating Membership Networking Lunches this year in Clyde Road and in Cork – two most successful events.

"Our STEPS Team once again engaged thousands of students in the hundreds of events organised during the STEPS Engineers Week 2023. Another very significant highlight of my year as president was my visit to our members in Australia and New Zealand.

"Being the first president to visit our Region there, I tried to include as much as possible during the two-week visit. This included delivering an abridged version of my presidential address to membership gatherings in Melbourne, Wellington and Auckland.

"I met with the president of Engineers Australia and the CEO of Engineering New Zealand, attended the Engineering NZ awards dinner in Parliament Buildings and was afforded a guided tour of the Melbourne Metro Tunnel Project. Costing Au$11bn the new metro tunnel includes 9km of bored twin tunnels and five new underground stations. Overall, I felt the visit was very much welcomed by our members down under, coming as it did following the Covid-19 lockdowns. 

I came away thinking that the Region has a strong future with the appropriate support from Clyde Road. We were delighted to welcome the president of the IMechE, Philip Peel, to Clyde Road in April 2023 where he delivered his presidential address.

"My presidency concluded with a number of most enjoyable and important events including sectoral visits to our GB Region where I delivered my presidential address on April 25, 2023, at the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) HQ and presented Title recipients with their parchments.

"This was repeated in Cork, Sligo, Belfast, Galway and Limerick where I acknowledged the enormous contribution our local committees and volunteer interviewers make to Engineers Ireland’s mission. The largest conferring ceremony of the year takes place in Dublin and was a truly memorable evening when we presented our remaining title recipients with their parchments and introduced those whom I had the privilege of conferring fellowship and honorary fellowship by presidential invitation.

"The year passed so quickly and I have wonderful memories to carry for the rest of my life. I thank those who considered me worthy of the enormous honour of presidency of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland, the recognised representative body for our profession in Ireland that has delivered and will continue to deliver more than any other profession for the betterment of Ireland and it’s people."

Director general's report 

I am delighted to have taken on the role of director general of this wonderful organisation. 2022 illustrated that we continue to live in uncertain times and that as a profession, we are more relevant than ever.

The world and our society have many challenges and engineers are best placed to address these – mitigating and adapting to climate change; turning around biodiversity loss; reconfiguring and securing our energy supply and delivering digitalisation across our industries.

2022 started with the conflict in Ukraine and our members overwhelmingly responded to a callout to volunteers to undertake assessments of vacant dwellings suitable for housing displaced Ukrainian refugees. Sadly, the conflict continues, and the Irish Red Cross has again asked for our assistance to assess properties and our members once again, have answered the call.

The conflict also increased our attention on our dependence on fossil fuels, security of energy supply and delivery of housing. These are areas where engineers already make significant expert contributions and as a profession, we need to champion resources to achieve even more.

The solutions to these challenges may have many constraints which impact the final solution. And in addressing these challenges, engineers must be cognizant of the impact of their solutions on quality, sustainability, biodiversity and the public good.

Key performance results

One of the highlights of the year was our paying membership number remained above 19,000. Reflecting the diversity of engineering talent, our new members joining during the year represented 61 countries.

The achievement of delivering 237 CPD events including 28 new specialist courses and 251 Sector events (the vast majority free of charge), with almost 15,000 Sector-member attendees, represents a significant achievement by the Team in Clyde Road; this was against a backdrop of the uncertainty of a re-opening economy as pandemic restrictions eased.

We also delivered a free-for-members Urban Roads and Streets Design Series of eight webinars in collaboration with the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland and the Irish Planning Institute. The series also involved the Department of Transport and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Eamon Ryan TD in his capacity as transport minister, opened the series for us.

Our media influence increased with prominent exposure of our members on national radio and television as well as very active engagement on our social media channels. (More information about our media engagement in 2022 can be found under our Programme area 5 on advocacy).

A novel podcast format – AMPLIFIED – showcased engineers operating at a senior level across many engineering sectors. Our website supported the processing of more than 290 Registered Professional Title applications; 2,600 student registrations; 970 new members elected; thousands of event bookings; 8,600 payments as well as 280,000 site users generating more than 1.6 million unique page views.

On October 19 we held our first inperson National Conference since 2019 at the Convention Centre Dublin on the theme 'Engineering in a time of challenge: Innovation, Decarbonisation and the role of Engineers', which was opened by Minister Michael McGrath TD.

Attendance at the National Conference was free for members and included prominent expert speakers on a number of energy-related topics. The option was also given to attend online. The results of our Engineering 2022 Barometer report showed that the profession remained robust in relation to remuneration, job opportunities and outlook, with recruitment opportunities for engineers, based mostly in Dublin and Cork, remaining strong.

Engineering directors and managers were confident about growth in their organisations in 2022 with 81% planning to recruit engineers. We need to attract more people into engineering at all levels and initiatives such as the delivery of engineering programmes in apprenticeship mode, will be key to increasing numbers entering engineering. 

Our STEPS outreach programme grew the number of STEPS Engineering Your Future participants which exposes almost 600 Transition Year students to engineering at universities and has achieved almost 50% conversion rate of participants choosing STEM programmes at third level.

We were also delighted to trial an apprentice-style approach to Engineering your Future which was a success, and will be more integrated into STEPS in 2023. The accreditation of third level engineering programmes underpins the formation of professional engineers.

During the year, 74 engineering programmes were accredited/reaccredited and notably one of the programmes is a bachelor level degree, delivered in an apprentice-style method with students on block release from work to attend university.

The programme is oversubscribed and more than 90 employers support students on this programme. There are 193 accredited engineering programmes across every university in Ireland. In 2022, the work of the organisation resulted in an operating surplus after depreciation and pension costs of €876,550 (2021: €1,249,550).

At the end of the financial year, the total net assets of the institution increased to €14,061,557. Key income streams saw strong performances and while costs were managed, expenditure rose in line with increased activity at Clyde Road.

A key development was the investment of much of our cash reserves to protect against inflation. Our auditors provided a clean audit report, a testament to the internal controls on our finance processes.

International activity

A key item in our calendar was the hosting of the meeting of the International Engineering Alliance in Killarney during October, which had been postponed for nearly 18 months because of the pandemic. More than 100 delegates from 30 countries attended the meetings.

We updated international education and mobility standards. The event was opened by our president, John Power. Committee members of An Ríocht and Professor Edmond Harty, our vice president (inaugurated as president on June 1, 2023), also attended during the meetings. Engineers Ireland was recertified for six years for the International Professional Engineers’ Agreement which supports recognition of professional engineering competence for international mobility.

In November, we hosted a meeting of the Label Committee of the European Network for Engineering Education in Clyde Road. I was particularly delighted that Professor Cyril Burkley, former chair of our Accreditation Board, who had expertly served as our representative on the Label Committee for many years, could attend to meet former colleagues.

Engineers Ireland is now part of a consortium of 13 organisations from eight EU countries to be awarded a three-year Erasmus project titled Engineers4Europe.

The objective of the project is to develop operational tools that overcome the fragmentation currently affecting the engineering profession due to national systems, definition of skills, competences, acquisition and verification of those competences. The project will be managed by Engineers Europe (formerly FEANI) in Brussels.

Governance

Following the completion of our externally-facilitated Governance Review, an implementation group chaired by Professor Orla Feely (president 2021-2022), progressed the recommendations of that review. The output is a suite of documents that sets out the roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders in Engineers Ireland.

Further recommendations from this group are now being progressed as part of a review of our Bye-laws – the first review since 2012. These documents are available in the governance section of our website. A review of the Code of Ethics was also completed during 2022.

This was the first significant review of our Code of Ethics since 2010 and included a consultation across the membership. One of the objectives of the review was to provide a version of the code that provides clarity, and that is more accessible for members.

Dr Richard Manton took on the role of chief risk officer and our Audit and Risk Committee merged with the Finance Committee towards the end of the year.

Team in Clyde Road

Many of our processes and engagement with members and organisations changed during the pandemic – many for the better.

Nevertheless, as the year progressed it was heartening for our members to meet again in-person at our events. Our staff in Clyde Road continued to support our members in an exemplary manner, achieving the objectives of the organisation.

This year we achieved the Platinum certification of the Excellence Through People audit from the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI). We also achieved the Investors in Diversity Bronze standard and STEPS, once again, achieved the National Investing in Volunteers standard. 

Our members

An organisation is more than a set of performance metrics. Engineers Ireland would not be where it is without the significant contribution of its members and their voluntary activities on our behalf.

The thousands of hours of advice and expertise given by our members to and for each other is truly remarkable. I am aware of no other profession where members contribute so much of their time and expertise for the advancement of the profession and the common good.

We need to be at the forefront of advocating for better and safer standards in areas that greatly impact the public good. Further, we need to ensure that standards are enforced so that some of the debacles we read in the media do not happen again.

Much of the work engineers perform is unseen and taken for granted. The work of engineers delivering vital public services, security and protection of the state is hidden in plain sight. This has to change.

As professionals we need to get out of the shadows and stand for what we believe in, however uncomfortable that may be for others. I am pleased to say in our advocacy work in 2022 we gave our voice to 12 open public submissions particularly around sustainability and energy security.

The achievements during 2022 relied on the dedicated contribution and support of the staff for which I greatly appreciate. I would acknowledge, in particular, the work of my predecessor Caroline Spillane, for her work in putting in place the frameworks which have supported the successes during the year.

I would like to thank our presidents during 2022 – Professor Orla Feely (2021-2022) and John Power (2022-2023) and vice presidents Edmond Harty and Laura Burke. It is only from working alongside the presidents that the extent of their energy and contribution on our behalf can be truly appreciated. My thanks also to John Jordan (appointed vice president on June 1, 2023) for his oversight of the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee.

To all our members of Council, Executive Board, Regions, Divisions, Societies, boards and committees a buíochas mór. In closing, the public comprehend what technology means to them but are largely unaware of the people behind the technology.

I fervently believe that working together we can change the public perception and understanding of our profession for the better and make the perception of engineers and engineering even more positive and greater.

Mar fhocal scoir, tuigeann an pobal ról na teicneolaíochta ina shaol féin ach, den chuid is mó, níl siad ar an eolas faoi na daoine atá taobh thiar den teicneolaíocht sin. Creidim go láidir gur féidir linn athrú chun feabhais a dhéanamh ar dhearcadh agus ar thuiscint an phobail ar ár ngairm, má tharraingímid le chéile, agus gur féidir linn dearcadh níos dearfaí agus níos iomláine fós a chothú i leith innealtóirí agus i leith na hinnealtóireachta.

I hope that you will join with me and fellow members on delivering that vision. I look forward to working with you during 2023 and beyond, to showcase the work of our profession.