Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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1566. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government for a timeline on his Department’s working group review of engineering qualifications for the local government sector, which began in April 2024 and is now awaiting a decision from him; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42738/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The declaration of qualification for posts in the local government sector is a power given to me as Minister for Housing Local Government and Heritage under section 160 (1) (a) of the Local Government Act. My Department keeps existing qualifications under review and will, where necessary, and in consultation with the local government sector and unions, propose changes to existing qualification and/ or identify new qualifications.

A Working Group was established by my Department in April 2024 to undertake a review of the existing suite of engineering qualifications in the local government sector and to propose changes to those qualifications where necessary.

Following the conclusion of the work undertaken by the Working Group which recommended a number of changes and a consultation process with the relevant public sector unions about the proposed changes, revised qualifications for engineering posts were declared on 25 July 2025 and are available on my Department’s website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage/collections/qualifications-for-local-authority-employees/

The revised qualifications will improve the ability of the sector to attract and retain high quality candidates with appropriate engineering qualifications, while also at the same time providing flexibility and consistency across the sector. In addition, flexibility has been provided to local authorities to meet operational needs in terms of other new qualifications for posts analogous to Assistant and Executive Engineer in the fields of construction / project management, energy management, facilities management and fleet management. These qualifications are also available on my website at the link above.