Sir, - The President of this country, which prides itself on its cultural awareness, clearly feels that it is not necessary to employ an architect in the design of a building. There should, of course, be amazement and astonishment expressed at such a course of action. In fact, there was none. For over 75 years the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland has been trying to persuade successive governments to introduce registration of the title of "architect". At the moment, any man, woman or child in Ireland without any qualifications or any experience can put up a plate and practise as an architect. When I say this to people I can see the light of disbelief dawning in their eyes. It is almost impossible to conceive that a country that regards itself as civilised would allow this to happen, but it has and it does.
The carpers will, of course, say that the purpose behind a campaign to register the title of "architect" is to provide a cosy cartel for architects themselves. The reality is that no State or local authority work is given to non-qualified architects and, equally, virtually all commercial and industrial work in the country is carried out by qualified architects, so there is no gain to the architectural profession in registration.
In fact, the purpose behind such a campaign is motivated by consumer protection. It will be pointed out that architects can design bad buildings and of course they can, but, everything else being equal, a building designed by a qualified architect would be better than one designed by an unqualified person. Architects, the public might be surprised to hear, are very fond of good architecture.
What is particularly unfortunate about the President's decision is that it is in precisely the area of the single house that the worst standards prevail. Time after time criticism of one-off rural housing development points out how damaging this is, obviously to the countryside itself but also to the image of the country, as tourists find themselves unable to believe that such sub-standard houses are being built, apparently without much restriction, all over the place. It has been estimated from a survey of planning applications that less than 10 per cent of one-off houses in Ireland are designed by qualified architects. The results are obvious. The Co Sligo planning officer, Mr Brendan Carolan, recently made a despairing comment on the mess.
The Minister for the Environment proposes to introduce, in the near future, a Bill to register the title of "architect". It is the first time that this matter has got that far and the Minister and his officials are to be congratulated on the fact that the present rather astonishing situation is finally to be addressed.
I am aware that the President, through the Council of State, can submit a Bill to the Supreme Court on the grounds of constitutionality. I wonder if the President would also be reluctant to sign a Bill on the grounds that it is unnecessary. If architects are not required to design buildings why should it be necessary to register them? - Yours, etc.,
David Keane, Past President, Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland, Prince's Street South, Dublin 2.
