Office of Public Works - EU Presidency
Client: Office of Public Works – Dublin 2
Value: €35 million
Between 1st January and 30th June 2004, Ireland was the holder of the Presidency of the European Union for the sixth time. Callaghan Engineering acted as the Electrical and ICT Design Consultants and Site Manager for Dublin Castle/OPW for the external events and meetings during the Irish EU Presidency. The key challenge was hosting and presiding over all meetings of the Council and its constituent working groups. This included over 300 meetings in diverse locations throughout Ireland. The facilities required to support ministerial conferences, or other events, and the associated media interest are extensive and are not available throughout the country. The facilities therefore had to be brought to each venue – effectively a mobile conference centre. The facilities required included full ICT connectivity for the delegates and media, power to support all applications including back-up power to ensure no power outage, simultaneous interpretation facilities to allow participation in various languages, audio/visual requirements and lighting at the events.
The solution was to design a fully modular & structured system which could be rapidly deployed to any location, be reliable & flexible in use, then be easily moved on to the next event in a short timeframe. This, combined with the fact that the services were consolidated in such a way as to require minimum cabling at all times, facilitated very rapid deployments, straightforward troubleshooting, & quick dismantling after the event.
Ireland’s Presidency also coincided with a number of major events in the development of the European Union as a whole, particularly the EU accession event in Dublin where the union formally expanded to include ten new member states, and the EU/US summit at Dromoland Castle in Co. Clare. It has been the Irish goal during all EU Presidencies since the first in 1976 to ‘raise the bar’ and set new standards for these events. It is an opportunity to show what Ireland is capable of and this Presidency was no exception.
