The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Health Service Executive (HSE) are advising people that water supplies from private wells can be contaminated with E. coli. It is estimated that 30% of private wells in Ireland are contaminated by Escherichia coli (E. coli) arising from animal or human waste. According to the Central Statistics Office, there are around 170,000 private wells in Ireland. The HSE meanwhile reports a growing number of cases of verotoxigenic Escherichia ...

  Author: Brian Carroll, head of the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Division, Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources The Offshore Renewable Energy Development Plan(OREDP) was launched by Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte in February at the Marine Renewables Industry Association’s (MRIA) 5th Ocean Energy Forum in Dublin. The OREDP sets out a vision of Ireland’s offshore renewable energy resource contributing to our economic ...

  The Government has committed to a major telecommunications network build-out to rural Ireland, with fibre as a cornerstone of its investment under the National Broadband Plan (NBP). Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte announced last week that  that this commitment was "a clear expression of Government’s determination to address the connectivity challenge in rural Ireland in a meaningful and sustainable way". The Government has given the green light ...

  The views expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not purport to be a commentary or official view of any other organisation or group. Author: Orla Fitz.Gerald, BSc Hons.(Arch) Dip. Arch. Dip. Arb. Dip Const. Law & Contract Admin. MRIAI FCIArb, director, Fitz.Gerald & Associates Architects have heretofore provided services for design, contract administration and monitoring/inspection of construction works sufficient to issue an opinion on Building Control ...

  Author: Brian Bond, chartered civil engineer, arbitrator and conciliator/adjudicator Arbitration and litigation are very expensive, slow and uncertain methods of dispute resolution. Arbitration, originally promoted to avoid litigation, has become as bad or worse. In many cases, the cost is quite disproportionate to the size of the dispute. The quest for an alternative to arbitration began in Ireland and in the UK in the mid 1980s. Various alternatives were tried, with ...

  Authors: Paul Ebbs BSc; Arlene Egan PhD; Raymond Turner We face challenges and dilemmas in our workplace daily, which serve to test our knowledge and expertise, as well as stretching our thinking and problem-solving skills. If you think about it, we spend a great deal of time asking ourselves questions about the situations we find ourselves in. What has happened? How has this issue arisen? How do we deal with this problem? How we know our approach will work? We also spend a ...