This review concludes that the Bill is welcome but needs to be modified to address industry concerns and practical operational issues. Overseas experience has shown that while similar legislative initiatives have delivered benefits, a more critical eye might view the results as disappointing. It is one thing to change the law; changing the culture is another thing entirely.

The argument suggests that the operation of the payments clause of a building contract is probably the single most important task that a quantity surveyor performs during the contract period. The study shows how the various Certificates are the vehicles by which vital cashflow is advanced to contractors for the smooth operation of their business. Payment is the most contentious issue in a building contract and late payment, underpayment, or indeed non-payment seriously strains or ruins smooth working relationships on site. Quantity surveyors representing both the Employer and Contractor must therefore be mindful of the importance of this task and act professionally to properly administer this vital duty.

The argument indicates that the Public Works Contract contains numerous measures which support the achievement of the Department of Finance’s aims. The counterview that it lacks balance in its risk allocation approach, is overly bureaucratic and expensive to administer, and has done nothing to protect, reform or improve the Industry at a time of unprecedented difficulties are certainly strong and valid criticisms of the Contract. On balance, however, this study deduces that the Contract improves the achievement of cost and time certainty and thereby promotes effective project delivery and, provided sufficient thought is given to risk allocation, goes some way to achieving better value for money.

The research design is interpretivist and qualitative in nature. The data was gathered through a series of one pilot and four phenomenological interviews with senior representatives of the quantity surveying profession. The primary concern was to gather rich and deep data which would allow a credible account of the approach to be composed from the employers’ perspective. The design recognises the limitations of the research and acknowledges that the findings are not exhaustive.

The research has established the following main findings:

The participants reported highly positive experiences of employing work placement students and that the approach works well in practice. It emerged, however, that smaller practices experienced some difficulties in securing placement students and that the larger quantity surveying practices and construction companies were better placed to recruit placement students. The participants expected the placement student to be capable of carrying out basic measurement tasks under supervision within a team structure to support the production of a range of tender and cost planning documents. The participants commented favourably about the students’ ability to perform these tasks.

The participants reported that the College, in general, maintained a background presence and allowed the participants a high degree of autonomy in managing the students’ experience. The participants considered their function was to provide the students with good experience and encouraged the students to apply for membership of the professional institutions. They maintained a high degree of control and supervision over the students and were aware of their status as learners.

The participants felt that the work placement approach provided valuable opportunities to recruit short term staff and vet them as potential full-time employees. They reported few problems which would not be encountered in employing young staff in any case. In general they consider work placement graduates to be more employable than their full time equivalents.

The principle conclusion is that there is a strong argument for adopting and implementing a work placement approach in quantity surveying education courses.

This research was an exploratory study, undertaken in two phases in line with mixed methods employed for undertaking the study. The first, qualitative, phase involved in-depth semi-structured interviews with the principals of eleven QS practices of varying size. The second, quantitative phase, involved a widespread survey of every QS practice registered with the Society of Chartered Surveyors (SCS) in Ireland, for which a response rate of over 40% was achieved.

The findings discover that the type, scope and extent of strategic planning within Irish QS practices vary with practice size and ownership structure. Distinct groups of practices are evident based on a number of strategic planning process characteristics, including formality, approach, participation, flow and planning horizon. Despite the absence of a systematic or formal process within smaller QS practices, it is clear that principals are thinking and acting strategically. These practices broadly follow strategic planning processes advocated in the literature, are mostly unaware that this is the case; however confirm that a more systematic strategic planning process is beginning to emerge, particularly in light of the severity of the current economic and construction industry downturn in Ireland.

The findings of the research provide an important contribution towards addressing the significant gap in existing knowledge in this regard. The conclusions drawn are specific to the QS profession, the research has been designed such that it has potential to be applied to other PSF’s within and outside the construction industry.

ENGLISH:

ABSTRACT: This thesis examines the nature of realism in nineteenth-century Irish fiction. The emphasis is on testing the generally accepted premise that Realism was conspicuously absent in the Irish works of that period. The nineteenth century saw large increase in literacy across all classes and was thus an ideal starting point for the emergence of a new market, both for authors and publishers. Especially In the England of that time, this clearly. There is also played in shifts style and literary taste which Realism itself as the most popular premised. The Irish writers also try these new terms of fiction, but to meet found it difficult to accurately Ireland to propose to a foreign audience. They names often resorted to caricature and exaggerated descriptions at the expense of classical realism in the style of George Eliot for example. This led to the charge that Irish Victorian fiction realistic or unrealistic work authors showed. The Realism provides literature on this, from an ideological and pragmatic reasons, a answer to the question what this is and also takes account of his dual nature as a literary style and theoretical approach to the writing itself. When this is applied to the Victorian novel in Britain, discovered that these works were a combination public-oriented mediation literature. If the Irish Victorian novel view, it is clear that Irish writers suffered from an identity crisis caused by the dichotomy of their subject (Ireland) and their markets (especially England). Consequently, evolution are not as clear as that of the English realistic novel. Furthermore, the Irish novel of that time treated differently than its English counterpart. The Irish novel was reviewed and tightened because often criticized for its representation of Irish life and not his artistic contribution as a literary work. There are several reasons for this alternative way to approach Irish realistic fiction: the differences in social and political context, the role of the Church in Irish life and influence who has the art and ideology of realism, the way of writing in a culture, suggesting that culture to another. These reasons all contribute to the formation of a literary realism that differs from that of the English neighbor. This raises the question is whether the comparison of Irish and English literature equitable. Despite offering Somerville and Ross The Real Charlotte's argument against a possible critics who are not classical realism in Irish Victorian fiction and see the contrary, a analysis of this book is evidence of certain characteristics of classical realism. Finally, although much research goes into this area, there may be still further research to provide a better basis for future analysis form. This research areas incorporate more detailed analysis of the context in which the Work started (including the economy of the literature and writing that period), and a review of literature of other nations than England which richer potential equations can be created.