Obtuse Angle

PAT LEHANE

O’Shaughnessy goes … to come back

John O’Shaughnessy has taken up a two-year assignment in Daikin’s Brussels office as Section Manager for Sales Operations & Business Development for Commercial Products in Europe.

John has played an instrumental role in the growth and development of Daikin in the Irish marketplace, first as the heating team lead and then the whole sales team. This assignment in Europe is designed to equip him with the skills to bring Daikin to the next level on his return.

Congratulations John, and here’s wishing you a fruitful, and enjoyable, sojourn in Brussels.

Practice makes …

As I stood on the first tee at the CIBSE Ireland annual golf outing doing the photographs as the teams went out, I caught Ciaran Moody and Fergus Daly scuttling back from sneaky practice on the driving range..

Still, they say that practice makes perfect and, to prove the point, Fergus went and hit a magnificent tee shot on the 15th and was convinced he had won the holiday voucher for nearest the pin.

Not to be outdone, Ciaran promptly hit an even better drive to within 1.6m of the hole, thereby depriving Fergus of his victory, not to mention the holiday voucher. Fergus may have moved to pastures new but Ciaran still had to have the final say!

Some accountability please

While the €858 million allocation under Budget 2022 to the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications is undeniably a positive move, it would be great to see a requirement for incremental, evidence-based updates showing progress (or otherwise) over the coming years.

Ireland has consistently made funding and grant allocations for various environment-driven initiatives over recent decades yet, other than general soundbites, detailed information on what worked and did not work is hard to come by.

We need honest, post-implementation debate on these initiatives, especially when they involve such vast sums. It is not a case of apportioning blame where the hoped-for results fall short, but rather an opportunity to genuinely learn from our mistakes. Indeed, the best learning outcomes very often come from an honest appraisal of our failures.

So, yes please to more and more investment in green and sustainable initiatives, but please also include progress reporting and accountability for those responsible for the spend.

Homer toasts Mona and James

Great to see two of the industry’s leading lights celebrate their wedding day recently. As you can see, Homer sent a special greeting to Mona to welcome her into the Duff fold!

Me? … why I’m an ingeniator!

Two leading academics in the UK claim that the term engineer has been cheapened by being applied to repair trades. They have each, separately, called for a new job title, one suggestion being ingeniator.

Apparently, the Spanish term is ingeniero; the German ingenieur; the French ingénieur; and the Norwegian ingenior. All of these words come from ingenius or ingenuity, so hence the suggested ingeniator.

Would ingeniators make a better fist of the energy, carbon and climate change challenge? … you never know.

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