Newly elected President of Engineers Ireland, PJ Rudden has made it his main focus to create jobs for the next generation and the Cavan native speaks to the Breffni Blue Yearbook about his younger days in Laragh and the many roles that he is currently involved in.

He also speaks about his ambitions for the 24,000 strong national organisation he now leads representing all branches of engineering - civil, mechanical, electronic, chemical, food, process, computing, pharma, energy, biomedical and safety.
PJ played schoolboy football but his brother Matt was left to fly the main flag in Gaelic football.

"I would have played a bit when I was younger and also some athletics but it was fairly modest. Matt was the footballer in the family and he has the distinction of winning the Hogan Cup, McRory Cup and Ranafast Cup with St. Pats before going on to play senior football with Laragh United and with Cavan for about 10 years before a knee injury brought an end to his career," said PJ.

"I would have an interest in GAA and have always found an infinity with the counties that I have worked in, mainly Dublin, Louth, Galway and Wicklow, while I was also working in Meath during the mid-nineties when they were at the peak of their fame."
PJ went to Laragh NS and then onto to St. Pats and UCD. He qualified with Honours in Civil Engineering from UCD in 1975. His early career was with Dublin Corporation (now Dublin City Council) and with MC O'Sullivan (MCOS) Consulting Engineers and Westmeath County Council in the Midlands on water supply, wastewater, roads and bridges. In 1982 he was seconded to Bord Gáis as Project Engineer on the Dublin end of the Cork Dublin Gas Pipeline and the North Eastern Gas Pipeline in North County Dublin/Meath/Louth.

He returned to MCOS in 1985 and helped to build the Dublin office business in water/wastewater services and motorways into the early 1990s, notably on the Dublin Belfast Motorway through Co. Louth and water / wastewater projects in Co. Wicklow. He led MCOS's diversification into energy, waste management and environmental projects becoming a Partner and Director, leading the formulation and public communications on Ireland's first regional waste management plans. These plans charted much of the national transformation of waste management leading to dramatic increases in national recycling levels from 7% to 38%. He won the UCD Inaugural Distinguished Graduate Award for this work in 2002.

He was responsible for opening the Galway offices of MCOS in 2001. In the late 1990s he was responsible as Consultant Project Director for Bord Gáis for the Gas 2025 Study, which was the National Strategy for Security of Natural Gas Supply recommending construction of the Second UK Gas Interconnector, Gas Pipeline to the West, South North Pipeline, an LNG Terminal in the South West and connection to the then emerging Corrib Gas Field.

Since 2007 he has assisted Shell in planning, routing, environmental impact statement and construction supervision of the modified Onshore Pipeline Route in Mayo for the Corrib Gas Field including communications and local stakeholder aspects which remains most challenging but it is now expected to bring the gas ashore in 2013.

He is still very involved in the development of the waste management industry promoting the integration of waste prevention, recycling, energy recovery (including district heating) and residual disposal. He is also leading the major ISLES study on export potential of our wind, wave and tidal energy for the Governments of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
"I would have over 30 years experience in infrastructure now and through the RPS Group where I'm Group Business Director. I've been involved in some of the biggest projects that this country has undertaken many up to €500 million in value.

"We plan, design, develop and manage projects for clients in the public and private sector. Many of these projects are large infrastructural facilities essential for Ireland's continued growth and well being in Transport (Roads, Rail, Ports & Airports), Energy, Water and Waste Management. We also now export our services to the Middle East.
"RPS delivers services through our 800 dedicated employees based at offices in Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford and Letterkenny. We employ enthusiastic, talented people with a unique blend of skills and experience. We provide reliable and practical advice and support to clients across a variety of disciplines."

PJ is a member of the EU Commission Judging Panel for the European Green Capital City Award 2010 - 2013. The European Commission has long recognised the important role that cities play in improving the urban environment, and their high level of commitment to genuine sustainable progress. It's surprising fact perhaps that 4 out of every 5 people in Europe live in urban areas - cities, towns and village settlements of some kind and due to the population density the greatest environmental pressures are found there.

"Starting in 2010, one European city will be selected each year as the European Green Capital of the year. The award is given to a city that:
Has a consistent record of achieving high environmental standards; Is committed to ongoing and ambitious goals for further environmental improvement and sustainable development; Can act as a role model to inspire other cities and promote best practices to all other European cities.

"Stockholm and Hamburg have been the first two winners of the award in 2010 and 2011 respectively. I along with the rest of the judges meet in Brussels to interview city mayor, managers and staff before we make a decision."
In his role as President of Engineers Ireland, PJ feels that education and more to the point maths has been a systematic failure over the years. This is not the fault of the teachers who do their best but of the system that has failed to deliver adequate learning outcomes.

"A firm grasp of mathematical concepts is seen as an essential component to aid the drive towards higher value knowledge services in the growth areas of computing, energy, pharma and biomedical. As chartered engineers, we also support the sustainable economy required for national development and to export our knowledge services to international markets.
"I think it is amazing that now there is still no form of assessment when children leave primary school for secondary school. So when they go to secondary school, it takes the teachers there some time to actually figure out where the students are at, whereas if there was an assessment done, they would know from the start." This creates unnecessary waste and is bad for pupils, parents and teachers. "I'm also told by secondary teachers that the standards learning primary school are dropping." Tweet

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