The Irish Times

If Tony Reddy had his way, the Government would produce an Urban White Paper on the planned growth of our cities and towns, set up an Urban Policy Board and publish an annual "State of the Towns and Cities" report to see how it's all going. But the 51-year-old Dubliner, who has just taken over as president of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI), is facing other battles - notably with the Competition Authority, which believes that the institute, like other professional bodies, operates restrictive practices that are not in the public interest. Most perverse is the authority's misdirected criticism of architectural competitions. As Tony Reddy points out: "There is no other profession where people produce the entire concept of their work at the outset in open competition - and we pride ourselves on that."