The law is an ass
A bizarre new law places huge obstacles in front of Irish architects who have qualified in the UK and who wish to practice in Ireland – even though non-Irish citizens face nothing like the same level of difficulty.
Valerie Flynn, 29 Jul 2010
There's a debate raging in the world of Irish architecture at the moment about who is and who isn't an architect – and those who no longer officially qualify believe they are being subjected to grossly unfair discrimination.
In some instances the view is incontestable. Since November 2009, when legislation was pressed through by the Minister for the Environment John Gormley, the job title "architect", has been protected by Irish law. Unless you are on the official Architects' Register, which is controlled by the quaintly named Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland, it is illegal to call yourself an architect. Anyone found guilty of the bizarre new offence, 'Misuse of the title "Architect"', could be fined €5,000 or jailed for a year, or both.
There are two main areas of contention. The first is that many people who have been working as architects but do not have the academic qualifications, have effectively been disenfranchised. The second is that an unquantified number of Irish architects, who have qualified in the UK, have also been disenfranchised, apparently as a result of a faulty piece of drafting on the part of the Minister.
"It is outrageous," one prominent architect told Hot Press. "I know people who are affected. These are Irish citizens, who qualified anything from one to thirty years ago in Britain, who are now working or looking for work in Ireland – and they have been put in the crazy position of having to undergo a time consuming and costly process of trying to confirm their right to be registered as an architect here. It is massively insulting – and reflects a scandalous inability on the part of the Minister and the authorities here to draft a simple piece of legislation correctly."
Hot Press spoke to one young, fully qualified architect, who has been met with a labyrinth of bureaucracy in his attempts to register.
Originally from Monaghan, James McAree (29) studied at the University of Luton, in London, and at the Mackintosh School of Architecture in Glasgow. Officially registered as an architect in Britain, he currently lives in Scotland. However, early in 2009, deciding to return to his homeland to work, he made an enquiry to the RIAI about joining the Irish register. He discovered that the bureaucracy was in an unholy mess – and he was the victim.
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