NEWS

Chairman’s Address

Dear Members,

I have completed my tenure as Chairman of the IPFMA. It has been a very enjoyable and rewarding time for me. To steal a phrase from a certain political party I believe that we have "A lot done. More to do".

Over the last twelve months the residential subcommittee under the chairmanship of Siobhan O'Dwyer has been very active in the promotion of industry best practice, as well as the Regulation of Residential Managing Agents.

On behalf of the IPFMA they have engaged with numerous organisations such as:

1. The Law Reform Commission
2. National Property Services Regulatory Authority
3. The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement
4. The National Consumer Agency

In addition they are finalising a position paper on multi unit management, which will raise a number of key recommendations that I believe once acted upon will improve the marketplace for the consumer and managing agents alike.

In February this year the IPFMA introduced the membership category of corporate member. This category will permit corporate bodies whose core business is the provision of Property and Facilities Management to join the association. Our membership subcommittee, under the chairmanship of Peter Maloney, has drawn up strict criteria for selection under this category. In addition they have modified our existing code of conduct, which will have to be signed by all corporate members.

We believe that this new form of membership will benefit the industry as a whole by setting out published standards that must be adhered to at all times by participating organisations. These standards will be based on industry best practice as well as legislative compliance.

In March of this year we finalised the IPFMA / SCS Code of Practice in relation to Service Charges in Commercial Property. This code of practice was developed from the RICS code of practice on Service Charges in Commercial Property, as a joint initiative between the Society of Chartered Surveyors (SCS) and the Irish Property and Facility Management Association (IPFMA) to reflect the law and practice in the Republic of Ireland.

The code of practice will be published in the very near future. I would like to thank our Membership services subcommittee, chaired by Jerome O'Connor, and our colleagues in the SCS who worked with us to finalise this important document.

Earlier this year the council unanimously voted to approve the nomination of Tony Smith, the outgoing Chief Executive of the Society of Chartered Surveyors, as an Honorary member of the Association.

Tony has been secretary of the IPFMA since its inception in 1989. During the early years, the association was reliant on the support and goodwill of the officers and staff of the SCS. As Chief Executive of the SCS, Tony ensured that the IPFMA had access to resources and expertise that would have been out of the reach of any other fledgling organisation. I have no doubt that this association would not be as strong as it is today without Tony Smith's support and the support of many of our colleagues in the SCS.

We were hoping to launch our new website earlier this year however, we ran into some technical difficulties which have held up the project by a number of months. We are working to resolve these problems with the aim of having the site up and running by the end of July.

Work on our diploma course is at an advanced stage for HETAC accreditation. We have developed a project timeline that will achieve accreditation by the end of this year. We intend running our existing Diploma course for one more year, beginning September 2008 however, it is likely that this will be the final year for this format. I would like to thank the education subcommittee chaired by Felix McKenna (President of the SCS) for driving this very important industry initiative to this advanced stage.

At the beginning of this year we were very fortunate to recruit Jennifer Gahan to the post of General Manager of the IPFMA. This is the first time in the history of the IPFMA that we have a full time professional whose role is to take a strategic approach to development of all aspects of the association. This is a key appointment as it marks a significant milestone for the future development of the association, which is outlined in our strategic plan. Based on the short time that Jennifer has been in this role, I have no doubt that the association is in very good hands for the future.

There are many people to whom I owe a debt of gratitude for assisting me throughout the year; in particular I would like to thank Tom Dunne, who will take over from me as Chairman for 2008 / 2009 and Peter Moloney who is Junior Vice Chair of the association. I would like to thank Louise Caldwell, Brian Whelan, Madeleine Connolly and Jennifer Gahan who have worked tirelessly for the association.

I would also like to thank the Council for all its support, without which it would not be possible to carry out the duties of chairman.

I look forward to continuing as a council member and supporting the IPFMA in any way I can. Finally I would like to thank our members for their support during my term as Chairman.