ICE President Richard Coackley and his wife Ella arrived in Dublin for a two day visit in January and to spread the word of his Presidential Address "Harnessing Energy." They were delighted to face an energy packed schedule.
On the Tuesday evening in the Sandyford Business Park the President attended an active committee meeting and gave his backing for a new initiative of the ICE RoI Branch to visit every third level institution in the State. This initiative will see the ICE actively engaging with the students through college visits and awards, together with the appointment of volunteer ICE liaison officers within each college.
On the Wednesday the President attended a very much oversubscribed site visit to Irish Cement and Indaver's plants in Duleek, County Meath. Irish Cement who are one of the Country's largest consumers of energy were able to show us all how they have managed to reduce the energy requirement to produce cement in their plant by 30% while also replacing 50% of the fossil fuels used for heat through the various processes in the plant with SPF (a mix of shredded paper and plastic). Indaver next door to Irish Cement are very much world leaders in their own right with one of the most modern waste to energy plants in the world. They are currently taking in 200,000t of household waste and diverting 75% of this from landfill while also managing to send 18MW of renewable electricity to the national grid. Both companies have shown how Meath and Ireland can be at the cutting edge of progressive engineering.
The President then gave his address to an audience in the Engineers Ireland Clyde Road Lecture theatre. In the address we are asked as Civil Engineers to mould the energy debate and to bring efficient solutions to traditional problems. We are also asked to be innovating and invigorating within the field of energy production. The address was very well received by the audience including the current President of Engineers Ireland (PJ Rudden, C. Eng) and Director General (John Power, C. Eng).
The address was succeeded by a dinner and further discussion where the President and the national committee office holders were hosted by Engineer's Ireland. Richard Coackley made presentations of home electricity monitors to both the EI President PJ Rudden and the ICE Branch Secretary Anthony Horan for their involvement in arranging the visit.
The ICE then reciprocated by hosting PJ Rudden at One Great George Street for his Presidential Address on 8th February 2012. The event was attended by over 40 members of Engineers Ireland resident in the UK. PJ Rudden's address focused on what changes are required to Ireland's national educational and spatial planning systems to drive a more sustainable recovery in job creation in resource efficiency and environmental terms. He argued that this requires engineers to take a holistic integrated approach to future infrastructural policy and developments in transport, water, energy, waste and communications. He went on to highlight the very positive contribution that ongoing innovation in energy, biomedical, pharmaceutical and ICT engineering is making to job creation and economic recovery. The Address was followed by a dinner which was also attended by Jon Pritchard of the Engineering Council.
Anthony Horan, ICE Ireland Secretary