Engineers TV

As a member of Engineers Ireland you have access to Engineers TV, which contains over 700 presentations, technical lectures, courses and seminar recordings as well as events and awards footage and interviews.

The event programme and online registration have opened for Dublin’s first Climate Action Week (DCAW21), taking place from September 13-19, 2021.

A range of online and in-person climate action events are now open for registration at www.dublinclimateactionweek.ie. The broad range of events address the theme areas of Energy and buildings; Transport; Flood Resilience; Nature Based Solutions; Resource Management and Citizen Engagement.

The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Climate Change 2021 Report, categorically underlines the need for urgent action on climate change by all sectors of society.

One of the highlights of the DCAW21 Programme includes a Climate Action Panel Discussion with the chief executives of the four Dublin local authorities, taking place online on Tuesday, September 14, 2021 at 10am.

Water and the city

Also a 'Water and the City, coordinated by Chartered Engineer and Engineers Ireland Fellow Gerry O'Connell and which will also include Adrian Conway on the panel, will take place on September 14 at 1pm.

Water, you can't live without it. The city grew economically and socially because of its relationship with water. How can something so simple go unnoticed until it's too late. Meet our team of water experts who work to make sure you have clean water to drink, cook and grow with. Find out about how we are building resilience to flooding, maintaining the health of the water bodies we are dependent on, and using sustainable urban drainage systems in the public realm.

Gerry O’Connell, Fellow CEng, MIEI. Senior engineer, Water Framework Directive Office
Roy O’Connor, senior executive engineer, Water Pollution Control
Dr. Neil Higgins, senior executive engineer, Drainage Division
Joseph Craig, senior executive engineer, Water & Drainage
David Grant, project resident engineer

Moderator: Dr. Niamh Shaw, Irish engineer, scientist, writer and performer, recently voted one of Ireland’s leading science communicators and STEAM specialists.

Outdoor climate film screenings

A number of online film screenings are planned, and outdoor climate film screenings will take place at venues across Dublin. There are also a range of family events, including workshops for children and guided walks in public parks.

The cathaoirleach of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, the mayors of South Dublin County Council and Fingal County Council, and the lord mayor of Dublin City Council, have jointly stated in the online Programme Promotional Video: "The Dublin Region is acting on climate change causes and impacts, and we are making positive changes.

"We’ve organised Dublin's first ever Climate Action Week, to showcase our climate action progress to the people of Dublin and elsewhere. We’ve launched an exciting programme of events across a range of themes. There is something for everyone.

"You can register for these events on our Dublin Climate Action Week website www.dublinclimateactionweek.ie. We invite you to join us. Discover more about acting on climate change so we are all Taking Action, Together."

You can watch the DCAW21 Programme Promotional Video at: https://bit.ly/ClimateActionWeek21

The week is being organised and delivered by the partnership of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, South Dublin County Council, Dublin City Council, Fingal County Council, Codema – Dublin’s Energy Agency and the Dublin Climate Action Regional Office (CARO).

The overall vision of Dublin Climate Action Week 2021 is – ‘to highlight Dublin’s climate action progress to its citizens and demonstrate the leadership role of the four local authorities in conjunction with other partners’.

Shared objectives

The agreed shared objectives of the initiative are:

Demonstrate progress on the implementation of the four Dublin local authority Climate Change Action Plans, and a regional approach to climate action;
Engage with a full range of partners to share knowledge on efforts and innovation across sectors;
Make climate action a ‘reality’ allowing citizens to see what climate action looks like;
Promote this initiative so as to fully engage with EU and international cities and our climate peers; and
Create a legacy so that this initiative can carry forward to subsequent years in a variety of ways.

Event programme unveiled for Dublin Climate Action Week: September 13-19

Engineers Ireland has welcomed Housing for All, A new Housing Plan for Ireland, which has been published by the government.

The plan, which aims to boost the supply of housing to 2030, will increase availability and affordability of housing, and create a sustainable housing system into the future.

€4bn in annual guaranteed state investment

The plan also contains a range of actions and measures to ensure more than 300,000 new social, affordable, cost rental and private homes are built by 2030. The actions outlined in the plan are backed by more than €4 billion in annual guaranteed state investment in housing over the coming years, including funding for the Land Development Agency to deliver affordable homes on state lands.

Caroline Spillane, director general of Engineers Ireland, said: “Homes, including how they are built and where they are located, influence each of our lives and represent a major component of the built environment.

"Ireland faces major challenges in our housing sector, not only in increasing supply to meet current housing needs, but also in improving the quality of the existing stock and preparing for the future. The very welcome publication of Housing for All, A new Housing Plan for Ireland has indicated four clear pathways to address challenges faced by the State, creating an integrated approach to housing delivery for the benefit of communities.”

She also referenced the role of engineers in the delivery of Housing for All, A new Housing Plan for Ireland and noted: “Engineers will be integral to the delivery of sustainable housing and smart settlements. Through innovative building and construction methods, they will enable the transition to a low carbon and resilient society and will support the sustainable management of water and other resources.

“Engineers, however, and their skillsets are in high demand, and we must encourage more young people to enter and remain in the engineering and construction sectors.

In addition to funding for research and innovation commensurate with the scale of construction in the domestic economy as detailed in today’s plan, we must also innovate to increase the capacity of our sector and collaborate to promote the rewarding careers engineering has to offer.”

A culture of innovation and the enhanced remit of the Construction Technology Centre (CTC) and the Construction Sector Group (CSG), coupled with the attention given to modern methods of construction (MMC), was also welcomed by the professional body. Meanwhile, renewed focus on compliance will include the establishment of registers of competent builders by placing the Construction Industry Register Ireland on a statutory footing.

Spillane noted that the “move towards a statutory register will help to promote a greater commitment to compliance with the building regulations, thereby promoting greater safety and quality for the consumer and the public”.

More integrated thinking

Following many years of campaigning for increased capital investment, the engineering body noted positively the move towards more integrated thinking and some enhanced funding for infrastructure, such as water, broadband, transport and electricity to service housing, a move which will ease the delivery of housing stock and make homes more affordable.

The move to increase funding to local authorities in order to retrofit 36,500 Local Authority-owned homes to B2 Building Energy Rating by 2030 was also welcomed. This new funding stream will also support ambitions within the Climate Action Plan which commits to completing 500,000 building retrofits to achieve a B2 BER /cost optimal equivalent or carbon equivalent by 2030.

“Engineers Ireland has advocated for the development and implementation of a radical national retrofit strategy, providing absolute clarity and a roadmap for retrofitting over the next 20 years to support the goals and ambitions outlined in The Climate Action Plan. We believe today’s funding commitment is another positive advancement to support our climate obligations,” said Spillane.