Sir, - David Keane (August 28th) takes the President of Ireland to task because, in his words, she "clearly feels that it is not necessary to employ an architect in the design of a building". If that indeed be the feeling of the President, I hold that Her Excellency is right and that Mr Keane is wrong.
Of course it is not necessary to engage the services of an architect for the design of a building. Likewise, it is not necessary to retain a solicitor for the conveyance of title in property nor, for that matter, a cardiologist when the requirement is a triple bypass procedure. Rather, what is necessary is unequivocal guidance for those contemplating such potentially complex undertakings to enable them to make an informed choice between engaging an amateur adviser on the one hand and, on the other, a fully qualified practitioner, with professional indemnity insurance, whose name is entered on a register from which it may be struck for proven malpractice.
Such a register, to be credible, must have defined criteria for listing and be maintained by a body with statutory authority. Hence the urgent need for the legislation proposed by the Minister for the Environment in the matter of the registration of architects. Once passed, all citizens of the State, including the President, will be free to choose in an informed way an architect listed in the register or an amateur or none at all. Where registration does exist, e.g. in the cases of solicitors and medical practitioners, people tend to make prudent choices rather than gamble recklessly with their investments or their lives.
In response to the concluding question posed by David Keane, if architects are not required by some people to design their buildings, it is still necessary to register them in the interests of freedom of choice, consumer protection and the common good. - Yours, etc.,
John E. O'Reilly, Rosemount, Enniskerry, Co Wicklow.