Full house expected for society dinner

DESPITE THE tough times being experienced by the property industry, the first annual dinner of the new-style Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) looks like attracting a full house to Dublin’s Burlo on Thursday of next week.

The booking trends suggest that the black-tie event is likely to attract more than 800 members as well as a string of guests from the construction, land and property sectors on both sides of the border.

Guest speaker will be Pat Cox, former president of the European Parliament, who continues to spend lots of time in Europe as President of the European Movement International in Brussels.

He is also EU coordinator for the €52-billion Trans-European Transport Network which oversees the high-capacity rail link between Berlin and Palermo.

The Irish property industry has been well served so far by the newly formed SCSI and its chief executive Ciara Murphy, who has overseen the amalgamation of two organisations which were once miles apart. Next week’s dinner will be the last formal function for president John Curtin who will shortly hand over the chain of office to Roland O’Connell, a director of Savill’s commercial property business.