11.06.2008
Have you ever wondered what the industry's influential figures have on their desk? From fire rated downlighters to crystal rugby ball pen holders, you can tell a lot about a person by their desk. This is why Voltimum's roving reporter, Frankie Snobel, scoped out the desk of RECI General Manager, David McGloughlin.
Born in the seaside suburb of Dunlaoghaire, David completed an engineering degree at University College in Dublin. He then worked in London and West Africa for a number of years. Now back in Dunlaoghaire, David is living only a street away from where he was born.
David’s career moved into the electrical industry when he was made General Manager of a manufacturing company. In 1996, David brought his management skills over to RECI, a regulatory body that was set up by the industry itself in 1992 with the intention of improving the standard of electrical installation work. David and RECI have been lobbying the government to push forward a statutory backing in the industry, and on Christmas Eve of 2006, an Act was signed with provisions to give statutory authority to the Commission for Energy Regulation( CER). The CER is now at the stage where they will soon designate bodies as Electrical Safety Supervisory Bodies, to regulate the activities of electrical contractors with respect to safety, and David is quite confident that RECI will be “one of these bodies”.
“The last couple of years have been very busy attending meetings with the CER and other parties and commenting on the various documents that have been published,” said David. “I believe that the outcome will be beneficial to both the registered electrical contractors and consumers."
"In the future certain electrical installation work will be designated by the CER as restricted and can only be carried out by registered contractors. A completion certificate will have to be issued for every type of installation work and the public will be advised to demand a certificate from the contractor."
1. Pre-qualification Questionnaire: RECI has recently submitted this to the CER. “This is step one to being designated as an electrical safety supervisory body,” said David.
2. RECI Guide to Verification and Certification of Electrical Installations: This guide to testing is used by all apprentices during their training, as RECI supplies them to all FAS Training Centres. The third edition has just been printed.
3. National Code of Practice for Customer Interface: RECI has just received this new edition, from ESB Networks, and are sending one to each of their registered contractors.
4. Fire Rated Downlighters: “There have been a lot of fires due to incorrectly installed downlighters or due to insulation incorrectly installed around them,” said David. RECI has highlighted this important issue on numerous occasions. Read a RECI article on fire caused by incorrectly installed insulation around light fittings here.
5. ETCI Electronic Completion Certificate Service Level Agreement: David is checking the details of this draft agreement with ETCI for the electronic completion certificate system. The system has been very successful and currently RECI contractors are processing about 40% of all RECI certificates electronically.
6. Invitation to the AECI Conference: This complimentary ticket was for David to attend the industry conference and seminars, which took place on May 24th at Whites Hotel in Wexford.
7. Wooden Paperclip Bird: David bought this finely carved knick-knack during a trip to Argentina.
8. Wedding Photograph of David’s Son: This family picture was last year in Dublin at his son Michael’s wedding to Suzanne.. His wife, Gretta, and son, Peter, were there for this momentous occasion as well.
9. Crystal Rugby Ball Pen Holder: David is not only a keen rugby follower, but he is an ex-London-Irish rugby player as well. His youngest son also played for London-Irish and now plays for Old Belvedere in Dublin.
10. RECI Electronic Newsletter: RECI is now sending out quarterly electronic newsletters along with their well-received printed version.
11. RECI Annual Report 2007: David is in the midst of looking at the report, as the Annual General Meeting for year ending 2007 is being held late-June.
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Source: Francoise Snobel - Voltimum |
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