The Gazette 1967/71

Each profession must be seen as part of the total life of society, not as a self-sufficient compartment. I would like to see the Federation as the co ordinator and integrator of related bodies of specialised knowledge. Finally we have endeavoured to establish con sultative co-partnership with government, but so far without success. Our application for represen tation on the N.I.E.G. has not yet been granted. When that body was inaugurated, it was referred to by the Taoiseach as an "Institution of formal machinery through which the advice of persons representing the main sectors of the community is made available to the Government". In the Third Programme, the institutional arrangements pro posed in, support of a prices and incomes police envisage a central body advisory in character and representative of employers, unions and Govern ment. It is frustrating that the so-called "elite" should be still acting the part of "the spy who came in from the cold". I suggest that there are extensive and expand ing areas in which study and research is called for. These embrace public realtions, restrictive practices and competition in the professions, busi ness and management training for the conduct of professional practice, the role of the professions in administrationa nd public enterprise, the profes sions and education, the merits of the multi- professional firm (i.e. embracing several profes sional occupations), the stoppage of the brain drain, etc. COMPLETION OF SALE AND PURCHASE Commissioners Fees on Memorial The Council have decided to make a practice recommendation to members in the interests of convenience that the commissioner's fee on the affidavit appended to the memorial of a deed should be paid by the vendor's solicitor and charged to his own client. This would avoid un necessary accounts and would in the long run be in the general interests of clients and their solici tors. It is hoped that members through the country will adopt this practice. The fee is always paid by the vendor's solicitor in the first instance and the benefit of transferring its incidence to the pur chaser is hardly worth the inconvenience and petty expense involved. INTERNATIONAL SUMMER COURSE OF LEGAL ASPECTS ON EUROPEAN INTEGRATION 1969 This course, organised by the "Europa Institute", of the University of Amsterdam in co-operation 23

and preventive medicine, in law reform and the emergence of the industrial engineer. I believe, however, that the first approach must be a strictly functional one. Though differing from business in the measurement of performance and responsibility, we must, nevertheless, recognise that the professions merchandise a line of products entitling the consumer to ask how good is the production system, the producer, the man-power supply, the quality control and how the cost is measured. We cannot claim to serve the public interest if we are not seen to be concerned with the most effective and economic use of resources. Much of our work is, after all, a component ele ment in a social or economic activity, part of a business project related directly to productivity. Much of the recent criticism directed against the professions is, I think, largely due to a mis understanding by the public of professional func tions, standards of performance and responsibility. Law, for example, as an instrument of order by which society works out its purpose is not a uni versal concept; the privacy and inviolability of the doctor-patient relationship is not popular with administrative bodies. It is commonplace that pro fessional people frequently enjoy a status in their professional circles not accredited to them at work. For this situation, the professional are, perhaps, themselves largely to blame. Public relations have not heretofore been their special concern. Never theless, how things are thought about, has a good deal to do with what is thought about. We must try and reach some understanding of why people think what they do. In this area, there is clearly much to be done. The public must be made aware of the nature and range of the benefits which society can expect from the professions. There must be some explaining to promote understand ing. We must not be seen to inhibit change. If we accept the duty to mould as well as to heed public opinion, we must widen our outlook. The complexity of society leads to increasing specialisation. We tend to know more and more about less and less and to take the limits of our field of vision for that of the world around us. There is, however, nothing more stultifying then "trained incapacity of the narrow expert". The esteem and prestige which a profession commands, is, I suggest, dependent upon the breadth of its members. To encourage this, I would advocate the development of multi-lateral relationships between professional bodies. Specialised knowledge needs to be supplemented by the capacity for seeing the interraction of several disciplines. We must make better use of the data of economic and social life.