Ms Kathryn Meghen:

The RIAI has had continuing professional development, CPD, for architects for the past ten, 15 or 20 years. Last year, we brought in a new information technology, IT, system where people log it and approximately 80% of people now use that online system. The rest bring in boxes. The advantage of CPD is that the end users have a guarantee that the architects they work with are up to date. Building is extremely complex. Architects are always carrying professional indemnity, PI, insurance as are all the other professionals. The insurance market considers a profession in its entirety when deciding on a premium. If all the architects, engineers and, one hopes, contractors are up to date with all the legislation and technology they are working under, their insurance premiums will be kept down. CPD is vitally important for the end user. All the professional bodies, to my knowledge, ask their members to demonstrate that they are complying. The same is true of CPD.

In respect of apprentices, one of the problems for architects and architectural technicians is that architecture has not been the most sustainable of careers over the past 15 or 20 years. Very few parents would have been encouraging their children to go into the trades because people within the trades have been competing with people who have no qualifications. If they now become regulated professions and activities, they become more attractive careers and we hope to see the numbers increasing quickly.