12th May 2015
The Minister for Business and Employment, Ged Nash TD, has today (Tues 12th May) announced his intention to appoint Dr. Nael G. Bunni as Chairperson of the Ministerial Panel of Adjudicators to be appointed under the Construction Contracts Act, 2013.
Dr. Bunni has extensive knowledge and wide ranging experience of dispute resolution in the Construction Industry both in Ireland and internationally.
Minister Nash said: “I am very pleased that Dr. Bunni has agreed to accept the role of Chairperson of the Panel of Adjudicators. He has a proven track record of dispute resolution at the highest level in the Construction Industry and he has the right skills and the essential knowledge to chair the panel of adjudicators that I will appoint following an open competitive process to be run by the Public Appointments Service, which will commence at the earliest opportunity following his appointment.”
Dr. Bunni said: “I would like to thank Minister Nash for selecting me to be the Chairperson of the Panel of Adjudicators and I look forward to working with Minister Nash to implement the Construction Contracts Act, 2013 for the benefit of all stakeholders in the Construction Industry.”
The Government approved the delegation of responsibility for implementation of the Construction Contracts Act, 2013 to the Minister for Business and Employment last November and work is continuing on the preparations for the full implementation of the Act as soon as possible.
The Construction Contracts Act, 2013 provides, subject to some exceptions, new minimum contractual provisions concerning payment arrangements between the parties to a construction contract. Where payment disputes do arise between the parties to a construction contract, either party will have the right to refer the payment dispute to adjudication, which will be concluded within a set timeframe. Where the parties cannot agree on an adjudicator, the Chairperson of the Ministerial Panel of Adjudicators will appoint an adjudicator from the Panel to the dispute.
ENDS
For more information contact DJEI Press Office 01 6312200 or press.office@djei.ie
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Prof. Dr. Nael G. Bunni
Dr. Bunni is a Chartered Engineer, Registered Chartered Arbitrator and Conciliator/Mediator. He is also Visiting Professor in Construction Law and Contract Administration at Trinity College Dublin. He is Past President of the Association of Consulting Engineers of Ireland (1987/1988); Past President of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, worldwide (2000/2001); and Past Chairman of its Irish Branch (1986/1989). Between 1994 and December 2007, Dr. Bunni was a member of the Board of Directors of the London Court of International Arbitration; between 1995 and 2005, Chairman of The Dispute Resolution Panel of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland; between 2004 and 2012, member of the Board of Trustees of the Dubai International Arbitration Centre and Chairman of its Executive Committee; and between 2004 and 2009, a member of the FIDIC Contracts Committee. Until the list was discontinued, Dr. Bunni was a member of the Panel of Arbitrators and the Panel of Mediators of the International
Presently Dr. Bunni is a member of the Commission on International Arbitration of ICC, Paris, and a number of its Standing Committees.
In 1996, Dr. Bunni was appointed, and remains, as Visiting Professor at Trinity College, Dublin University. In 1999, he was elected a Fellow of the Irish Academy of Engineering and in March 2000, elected member of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration, ICCA, which is a gathering by cooption of 45 members of the foremost leaders in the field of dispute resolution worldwide. (Now "Advisory Member" to the Governing Board).
Dr. Bunni has been involved in many civil and structural engineering projects in Ireland and abroad. He has won a number of professional awards for his work in engineering design and also in dispute resolution. He is Past Chairman of FIDIC's Standing Committee on Professional Liability and FIDIC's Task Committee on Construction, Insurance and Law.
Has acted as dispute board member, conciliator/mediator, arbitrator or chairman of arbitral tribunals in numerous domestic and international disputes involving parties from over fifty jurisdictions. He has acted as arbitrator in over one hundred and fifty domestic and international cases, either as sole arbitrator, as a member of a tribunal or as chairman (president). Many of these appointments were under the ICC Rules of Arbitration; the LCIA Arbitration Rules; the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules; the Dubai International Arbitration Centre; the Institution of Engineers of Ireland or the Rules of the Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration. Over ninety of these cases have led to written and published reasoned awards.
Dr. Bunni is the author of numerous technical papers and three books: "Construction Insurance and the Irish Conditions of Contract"; "Construction Insurance" now in its second edition under the title of "Risk & Insurance in Construction", published by Spon Press, London, in March 2003; and "The FIDIC Forms of Contract" published in its third edition in May 2005 by Blackwell Publishing, Oxford (now John Wiley & Sons Ltd). He has lectured extensively and has been invited to speak in many countries in Europe, The Middle East, Asia, Africa, North and South America and New Zealand.
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