Engineers' regulatory regime favours competition - study

The engineering profession has been given close to a clean bill of health by the Competition Authority.

Following an in-house study, the authority has found that the current regulatory regime for engineers facilitates competition.

"This profession illustrates how competition, supported by direct regulation of quality, can produce value and quality for customers of professional services," said Dr John Fingleton, chairman of the authority.

The report on the engineering profession is the first in a series on the professions being prepared by the authority.

A consultation paper and preliminary report were published in August 2003.

Since then nine of the 10 recommendations put forward by the authority have been addressed.

The final report contains two recommendations. One is that no further regulation should be imposed on the profession without a regulatory impact assessment being conducted.

The other is that the accreditation system for the engineering degree run by the Institution of Engineers in Ireland (IEI) should be made more open and transparent.

The director general of the IEI, Mr Kevin Kernan, said he was pleased with the report. He said the approach taken by the IEI was likely to become the benchmark for other professions.

He described the two recommendations in the final report as minor. It said the IEI believed the second recommendation had been satisfied.

The final report is the first to emerge from a number of studies of professions being carried out by the authority following on from a report on the professions produced by the consultants' group Indecon.

In the New Year the authority hopes to issue final reports on architects and initial reports on solicitors, barristers and vets.