Chambers Ireland Weekly Digest: 1st May 2018
- ELG Awards 2018 now open for Applications
The Excellence in Local Government Awards 2018 (ELG Awards 2018) are now open for applications!
The ELG Awards 2018 showcase best practice in local government and recognise the skills, hard work, innovation & enthusiasm within local government that can often go unrecognised.
Spread the word through your newsletters, website and social media and encourage your local county and city councils to submit their best practices for the awards.
Our website is now live with lots of helpful information for applicants including:
- ELG Awards 2018 Category Descriptions
- Terms and Conditions for entry to the ELG Awards 2018
Please note the deadline for applications for the ELG Awards 2018 is 12PM on Thursday, the 17th of May 2018.
Click HERE for further information.
- European Parliament of Enterprises 2018
The European Parliament of Enterprises (EPE), hosted by Eurochambres every two years, is scheduled to take place in the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday, the 10th of October 2018.
More information on the event will be circulated in the coming months.
If you have any questions about the event, please contact emma.kerins@chambers.ie.
- LGiU Briefing Series on Chambers Ireland Excellence in Local Government Awards Winners – Library Support to Secondary Schools by Kildare County Council
The Local Government Information Unit (LGiU) is publishing a series of briefings looking at the winners of the Chambers Ireland Excellence in Local Governance (ELG) Awards from 2017. The LGiU will showcase each of the best in practice projects that won at our Awards in 2017 over the coming weeks.
Please find attached the eighth instalment in the series of LGiU briefings on Chambers Ireland ELG Awards 2017 Winners, this week featuring the winner of the Best Library Service category, Kildare County Council’s Support to Secondary Schools programme.
- InterTradeIreland Breakfast Briefing – Selling to Government – Intermediate Level
InterTradeIreland in partnership with the Office of Government Procurement, Enterprise Ireland, Ibec, SFA, ISME, CIF and Chambers Ireland are delighted to deliver the latest briefing in the series of breakfast workshops aiming to demystify, educate and engage businesses on the island around public procurement, a market worth in the region of €12b per annum.
This is an Intermediate level briefing, which will take place on Wednesday, the 16th of May at the Radisson Blue Hotel, Limerick.
The briefing will cover:
- How public procurement works
- Finding and understanding framework opportunities
- Tender procedures
- The ESPD
- Lotting
- Improving a bid score
- Social Procurement & Green Procurement
The briefing is aimed at micro businesses and SME’s who already know the basics of public procurement and who wish to update their market knowledge or get a better understanding of any of the above.
To register and for further information, click here to visit the event website.
- EU Green Public Procurement April Update – Stakeholder Workshop & Afternoon Conference
The Department of Communications, Climate Action & Environment have announced the dates of the Irish Green Building Council (IGBC) afternoon conference and the GPP4Growth workshop. The IGBC afternoon conference, ‘Re-Source 2018’ taking place at the Wood Quay Venue on Thursday, the 21st of June, 1.30pm to 5.30pm, will focus on designing buildings to facilitate minimal levels of embodied carbon and to create a circular economy for construction materials and healthy places to live and work. Speakers at the event will include building LCA expert Tytti Bruce-Hykras (MSc) and chemist Professor Dr. Michael Braungart.
For further information and to register your attendance, click here.
The GPP4Growth workshop taking place at Custom House on Wednesday, 27th of June will look at the use of Ecolabels in the tendering process; the benefits and the potential issues, case studies, best practice in other regions and resources for procurers. The speakers for the workshop will be Jeanne Copeland, CEO & founder of Greenville Procurement and Pat Barry, CEO of the Irish Green Building Council (IGBC). There will also be an opportunity for questions, discussion and feedback on GPP in Ireland.
Registration for the event can be found at https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/gpp4g-workshop-3-ecolabels-registration-45513453966 and the password is DCCAEJUNE2018
- Personal Injury Assessment Board (PIAB) – Quickly and Efficiently Processing Personal Injury Claims
PIAB is the State body which handles undisputed personal injury claims and removes a lot of the processing costs previously associated with these claims. As liability is not an issue in the claims PIAB handles, its role is specifically to assess compensation for the injuries suffered by the claimant in a quick and cost-efficient way.
PIAB are available to speak at member briefings and events on why using the PIAB system is a cost-effective way for businesses who have claims brought against them. Please contact Gabriel.Doran@chambers.ie if your Chamber is interested in have the PIAB speak at an event.
PIAB uses a non-adversarial (paper/electronic) process whereby the claimant submits details of their injuries and losses sustained. PIAB employs a team of highly experienced in-house claim assessors who have regard to independent medical reports from a team of medical practitioners who are on the PIAB independent panel. PIAB when assessing the level of damages also has regard for the Book of Quantum and the level of damages awarded by the Courts for injuries of a similar nature. PIAB assesses approx. 13,000 claims every year and the majority of its awards are accepted by both parties.
The advantage of the PIAB system for the person the claim is made against is that most add-on legal/litigation costs are not payable. While most claimants have always taken their own legal advice, PIAB does not pay legal costs generally to claimants, and its own processing costs are very low – averaging less than 6.5 per cent of the amount of the final award. This contrasts with processing costs in litigation (court cases or private settlement) which are many multiples of that figure. PIAB resolves undisputed claims in approximately 7 months – this is a far shorter time than a court case and some private settlements which could take over 3 years.
By resolving claims quickly, PIAB has ensured far fewer claims go to court, and it has removed hundreds of millions of euro of litigation processing costs from the system over the past 14 years. These processing costs would otherwise have been paid for by policyholders.
- Notice from the Embassy of Brazil – Online booklets on ‘Opportunities in the Brazilian Oil & Gas Industry’ and ‘Fuel Production and Supply – Opportunities in Brazil’
The Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) has published the online booklets “Opportunities in the Brazilian Oil & Gas Industry – Ongoing Actions & 2018-2019 Upcoming Bidding Rounds” and the “Fuel Production and Supply – Opportunities in Brazil”.
The publications are available at the following link: https://goo.gl/j8Nrk2
Should you have any queries, please contact the Embassy of Brazil in Ireland at:
+353 1 416 1216