In March 2015, EirGrid published a discussion paper on Ireland’s Grid Development Strategy, which aims to explain the need for, and drivers of, grid development. The draft EirGrid Grid Development Strategy has been fundamentally shaped by our desire to engage with public feedback, and by our commitment to use technological advances to make the existing grid work harder for the people of Ireland, thus minimising the need for new infrastructure. This article looks to provide an ...

  For anyone in the fabrication business, Spectac may well be a familiar name. The company has been featured in the media for all the right reasons in recent months. It has a packed order book, it has doubled its employees to a team of 54, it has moved to a larger premises with over 45,000 square feet and turnover exceeded €3.2 million in 2013, after years of struggling for survival in Ireland’s flat economic environment. From this good news story, there are lessons to be learnt for ...

  Author: Dominic O’Shaughnessy, chartered engineer CEng MIEI, chartered tax adviser CTA AITI, chartered tax consultant in William Fry Tax/Taxand Ireland The purpose of this article is to address the day-to-day issues and complications that professional service providers (PSPs) such as engineers, can encounter with VAT invoicing, including: What information to include on a valid VAT invoice; Whether Relevant Contracts Tax (RCT) applies; and The different VAT treatments applying ...

  Author: Pádraic Ó hUiginn, communications programme manager, Ireland’s national Technology Centre for Biorefining and Bioenergy (TCBB) Reputedly the location of Ireland’s first computer and home to one of Ireland’s former sugar beet processing plants, Premier Green Energy’s plant in Thurles, Co Tipperary played host to a cutting-edge industry exhibition earlier this month. Days after the European Union milk quotas ended and with much interest from the agri-food industries, ...

  Author: Prof Jerry D Murphy, Science Foundation Ireland, Marine Renewable Energy Ireland Centre, Environmental Research Institute, School of Engineering, University College Cork An ongoing task for engineers is to predict the future and plan infrastructure based on these predictions. This is a difficult task and is not an exact science. Questions abound. What will the population of the country be in 2050? How much housing is needed and where is it required? Where will industry be ...

  Kenneth L. Mitchell explores the ancient and continuing link between the engineering profession and the fraternity of freemasonry in Ireland In November 1830, in the city of Limerick, an architectural engineer by the name of James Pain made a fascinating discovery. He had been contracted for the sum of £3,000 by the New Limerick Navigation Company to replace the ancient Baal’s Bridge (1340) that linked the Englishtown on King’s Island to the Irishtown area on the ...