I thank the Chairman and members for the kind invitation to address them. We intended to have another person with us, Paddy Caffrey, who is the vice president and managing director of Pfizer, but he ran into difficulties when coming from Cork and could not make it.
We have given the committee a reference book to which we will refer as we go through. It is not our intention to go all the way through it, merely to take the first 15 pages. Additional information and reference material backing up our presentation is included. I will make a short presentation giving the context of the institution and where we sit within the engineering profession and the economy. Paddy Purcell, the director general, will deal with the third and second level education challenges. I will then wrap up with some quick comments in conclusion. We will then be delighted to answer any questions or enter into any discussion.
The Institute of Engineers of Ireland has 21,000 members and is the largest professional body in Ireland. It is an all-Ireland learned body that was founded in 1835 and is strongly represented in all the regions. Our charter was amended by a 1969 Act of the Oireachtas and, as a result, we are charged with responsibility to keep a register of chartered or professional engineers. We represent all the engineering disciplines, both in the private and public sectors. The main divisions are: civil and structural, electrical and electronic, mechanical and manufacturing, chemical, software, biomedical, agriculture and food. There are other divisions as well. A run down of these is on page 17 of the book we have given members. We are an all-Ireland body and cover all disciplines.
We realise the committee has a wide remit and, although the main purpose of today is to talk about the decline in the study of the physical sciences, we would like to mention a few areas where we have the potential to make a further contribution and on which we would be delighted to be consulted.
One is the accreditation of third level engineering qualifications. Under European Union regulations, we have formal responsibility under the Washington, Sydney and Dublin Accords and a range of international agreements to carry out quality assurance of third level qualifications at degree, diploma and certificate levels. This gives confidence to the international business community that, when they locate or work in Ireland, the quality of engineering they come across is on a par or better than what they are used to in their home countries or best world standards.
The second item highlighted on page 4 is the Bologna Declaration. Ireland is a signatory to this declaration, which commits all EU countries to a common approach to third level qualifications by 2010 for all third level qualifications. It has particular relevance and implications for the engineering profession, with which we want to deal. The institution prepared an early position paper on the Bologna Declaration in 2001 and we are currently completing a further paper on it. Much work will have to be done in Ireland to ensure we are best placed to meet our commitments here by 2010. We work closely with the Department of Education and Science, the HEA, HETAC and the third level colleges on the Bologna Declaration and we would be delighted to discuss this with the committee if it becomes an issue.
We are aware that all parties have significant commitments to research and development in Ireland to keep up the economic surge of recent years. We also believe that the seeds are set in the third level education sector and we are keen to ensure there is sustained investment in third level education, research and development. We will happily discuss this with the committee at an appropriate time.
Regarding continuing professional development and lifelong learning, we strongly believe that an engineer's education is not complete on graduation. In some ways it is only starting and we are in sync with Government and EU policy on this. We have a major initiative under way with companies which employ engineers and engineering personnel and though it is relatively recent there has been a good take-up and it is very successful. We have 130 companies which have signed a protocol and which are willing to commit themselves to providing continuing professional development or lifelong learning for their engineering personnel. We are working closely with industry on this.
We have a very important role to play in the manufacturing-export sector, which is a cornerstone of our economic success and our strong balance of payments. If members look at pages 21 to 28 they will see the logos of many major companies in which engineers are employed and we have many members in those companies. Our contribution to the manufacturing sector is emphasised by a remark made recently by Sean Dorgan in his annual review of the IDA's performance. He referred to recent job losses, saying by far the greater part of the jobs lost were in basic assembly but that there will be an unstoppable growth in demand for highly qualified engineers.
We feel it is very important that that supply of highly qualified engineers is provided. Our members, and engineers in general, play a huge role in the development of infrastructure also; pages 29 and 30 show a number of private and public sector organisations in which engineers play a vital role, working hard to produce the infrastructure required for economic success. The same goes for engineers' contribution to quality of life. Apart from the organisations already mentioned, engineers are actively involved in many State organisations - local authorities and so on - which enhance the environment and contribute to sustainable development. They will also be critically employed in the national spatial strategy.
All in all, our economy is dependent on approximately 70,000 engineers, so a continuing supply of engineers is vital. Page six gives an indication of the challenges we face. A graph shows the NCEA awards through the 1990s in broad disciplines. The red line in the graph shows quite a decline in engineering and technology output right through the decade and there is no change since. Meanwhile, there is a significant rise in business studies, so a rise in this sector seems to follow a decline in interest in engineering. The same goes for science and computing, if one follows the green line through the graph, while the humanities have increased. We see this as encapsulating the challenge we face in ensuring an appropriate supply of engineers to meet the needs of the economy and the country.