The law is an ass

There's a debate raging in the world of Irish architecture at the moment about who is and who isn't an architect – and those who no longer officially qualify believe they are being subjected to grossly unfair discrimination.

In some instances the view is incontestable. Since November 2009, when legislation was pressed through by the Minister for the Environment John Gormley, the job title "architect", has been protected by Irish law. Unless you are on the official Architects' Register, which is controlled by the quaintly named Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland, it is illegal to call yourself an architect. Anyone found guilty of the bizarre new offence, 'Misuse of the title "Architect"', could be fined €5,000 or jailed for a year, or both.
There are two main areas of contention. The first is that many people who have been working as architects but do not have the academic qualifications, have effectively been disenfranchised. The second is that an unquantified number of Irish architects, who have qualified in the UK, have also been disenfranchised, apparently as a result of a faulty piece of drafting on the part of the Minister.
"It is outrageous," one prominent architect told Hot Press. "I know people who are affected. These are Irish citizens, who qualified anything from one to thirty years ago in Britain, who are now working or looking for work in Ireland – and they have been put in the crazy position of having to undergo a time consuming and costly process of trying to confirm their right to be registered as an architect here. It is massively insulting – and reflects a scandalous inability on the part of the Minister and the authorities here to draft a simple piece of legislation correctly."
Hot Press spoke to one young, fully qualified architect, who has been met with a labyrinth of bureaucracy in his attempts to register.
Originally from Monaghan, James McAree (29) studied at the University of Luton, in London, and at the Mackintosh School of Architecture in Glasgow. Officially registered as an architect in Britain, he currently lives in Scotland. However, early in 2009, deciding to return to his homeland to work, he made an enquiry to the RIAI about joining the Irish register. He discovered that the bureaucracy was in an unholy mess – and he was the victim.

NASTY EFFECT
There are, Hot Press has been informed, different routes to registration. However, James was given the impression that the most straightforward for him would be as an "A1", which is for EU nationals with EU qualifications. Advised to apply through this route James did so. His application was rejected.
Why? It emerged that Irish-born graduates, who qualify outside Ireland, cannot apply in the same way as Irish graduates who studied for their degrees at home. It is as clear a case of anti-competitive discrimination as you could find. But, regardless, the RIAI has insisted on sticking to the letter of the (new) law.
"Before this act came in, because I have qualifications that are recognised by the architects' registration board in the UK, I would have been able to register in Ireland," says James. Now, he is effectively an outcast, unable to practise his profession in the country of his birth. Furthermore, if James was of any European nationality other than Irish, his British qualifications would be acceptable under route A1.
"With the same qualifications, if I had a British, a Polish or any other passport in the EU or EEA or even Switzerland, I'd be able to apply and for €145 it'd be no problem," says James.
To add insult to injury, James – and others like him – have been told they have to apply through a complicated three-stage process including the submission of a portfolio of their work, information on their exams – even though in some cases these might have been 30 years ago – and an 'interview'. This process costs €935, six times the price of the A1 application.
Without RIAI registration, James can't apply for work at home in Ireland. And, in what is a particularly nasty effect of the ham-fisted legislation, others who are already employed here can no longer sign off on contracts as architects.
"I'm unemployed now," James says. "If I wanted to move back to Ireland, even just to do architecture competitions, I'd be barred from them. The thing is, me speaking out about this, is probably not going to be good for my future career. But, at the same time, it is discrimination."
When contacted by Hot Press, a spokeswoman for the RIAI said that she is familiar with James' case and insisted that the legal difficulty has been resolved. She said that the problem was due to a mistake in the wording of the legislation on the part of the lawmakers, and that it was not the doing of the RIAI.
The decision not to apply common sense, in effect putting people's jobs at risk, however, surely is.
James' case is due to be 'reviewed' soon. Having twice applied and had his application rejected, he is sceptical about the likelihood of a positive outcome. "To me, it's not resolved until the likes of me are registered," he says.

NOT QUACKS
On the face of it, the new law was introduced to protect consumers by enabling them to distinguish architects who are fully qualified. And up to a point, certainly, it makes sense: as we know from the example of Bertie Ahern, there are charlatans and chancers who will pretend to have qualifications – and who get away with it. Others, however, see the law as a kind of land-grab, in which a professional body with a vested interest is being afforded an unwarranted special status. It is a classic battle between those who value academic qualifications above vocational ones. And is not at all clear who is right and who is wrong.
The fact is that many skilled people who have been practising as architects for years don't have academic qualifications. Represented by the Architect's Alliance, they insist that they're not quacks; it's just that they trained on the job, rather than in a formal third-level environment.
"It's the nature of the profession," Brian Montaut, spokesman for the Architects Alliance, which represents unregistered architects observes. "You get employed as a junior and work your way up. Ireland's most famous architect, Michael Scott [of Bus Áras fame] was self-trained."
The Alliance is furiously lobbying Government to have a "grandfather" clause added to the new rules, whereby those who have been practising as architects for years may apply to register.
Should the State protect a title like "architect"? You might, for example, think twice about paying for the services of an unregistered doctor – but, as everyone knows there are nurses who are often far better qualified to deal with particular health issues than a huge number of GPs. Similarly, many perfectly legitimate careers require no statutory registration or qualification – journalism, for example.
"I think it's a profession where those who learn on the job do a better job," Montaut argues. "It's a mix of practical and aesthetic skills. The significant aspects of being an architect do not develop best at university – I'm talking about the instinctive understanding and observation and interest in craft, which are not things that you can learn out of books but which develop with doing it."
There are, of course, ways of resolving the dilemma. It wouldn't be hard to enable people who develop their skills outside the conventional academic system to turn their knowledge into qualifications without having to undergo further academic grinding. But that require a paradigm shift which the Irish system seems incapable of making.
In the meantime, even Irish architects qualified in the UK and Europe are being told to stuff it.