Joe O'Toole (Independent)

——or the Ponte Vecchio in Florence? We must assume there are good architects who never had a qualification. The independent architects may have gone overboard with the argument but they have made the point. We have moved from there to architects and professionals developing at the knee of the master. That is the way the profession developed. The independent architects must recognise that we have moved on to another level and they should accept that. In fairness, I think they do.

The independent architects have one objection. They disagree that it should be the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland that decides. I have no problem with the architects doing it but the way they do it must satisfy me. The concerns of the independent architects are well founded. I am also a member of the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority which has always had to deal with it in terms of independent auditors and accountants and which had to make changes and be flexible without dropping standards. We had to raise standards all the way. I would like us to reassure the independent architects that we do not want to bury them and that we are trying to attain standards and, by agreement with them, to find a way to move them into this system in a way that will protect them, their livelihoods and the decent work carried out by those good people in that area.