Which register covers which trade

Ireland has no single place to check that someone is qualified to do the work you are about to pay them for. The registers exist, but they are held by fifteen or so separate bodies, most people have never heard of half of them, and there is no obvious way to know which one applies to your job.

That is the whole problem this page solves. Find the trade, go to the register.

Two things are worth knowing before you start. Registration is legally required for some trades and entirely voluntary for others, and the difference matters a great deal. And for several of the trades people worry about most, including plumbers and roofers, no register exists at all. Being told that plainly is more use than being pointed at a trade association and left to assume it is a regulator.

Building and home works

Electrical work is the one people get wrong most often. The legal duty applies to Restricted Electrical Works in a domestic property, defined by S.I. No. 264 of 2013. Commercial premises, construction sites, farms, public lighting and minor jobs like swapping a switch or adding a socket to an existing circuit are outside it. The other catch is that appearing on the public search is optional for contractors, so a name not showing up is not proof they are unregistered. Safe Electric asks you to contact them directly to confirm.

Gas is simpler and stricter. Anyone doing gas work must be a Registered Gas Installer. The search filters by work category, and being registered for boiler installation is not the same as being registered for LPG or appliance servicing, so check the category matches your job. The register lives at rgi.ie. The older rgii.ie address no longer resolves.

Builders are the significant gap. The Regulation of Providers of Building Works and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022 provides for a mandatory register, but the sections that would compel registration have not been commenced. The old Construction Industry Register Ireland site is offline and has been renamed the Voluntary Construction Register. It is worth checking, but understand that it shows scheme membership rather than statutory competence, and that a builder not on it is breaking no rules.

Security installers are the register almost nobody knows about, and it is one of the most useful. Licensing is mandatory for contractors fitting intruder alarms, CCTV and access control, for locksmiths, and for suppliers and installers of safes. Every licensee is Garda vetted. If you are about to let a stranger fit cameras or change your locks, this takes about ten seconds.

Professions

There is more on doctors and consultants and on driving instructors, which are the two people ask about most.

Architects need explaining, because the protection is narrower than it sounds. Section 18 of the Building Control Act 2007 protects the title. It does not restrict the activity. Anyone may lawfully design a house and lodge a planning application. What they may not do is call themselves an architect. Architectural technologist, architectural designer and architectural services are all unprotected terms, and all of them get used by people who are not on the register.

Estate agents have the best maintained register in the country, recompiled daily, but you have to read the colours. A red row means the licence is suspended and the firm is not authorised. A blue row means not currently authorised. Black text with an expiry date in the past means a renewal decision is pending and they may still trade. Finding a name is not the same as finding a valid licence.

Nurses and midwives get the best register technically. It updates in real time, shows the registration expiry date and the division, and tells you whether fitness to practise conditions are attached. You need either a surname or a registration number, since it will not search on a first name alone.

Dentists are the weakest. The Register of Dentists is published as a static list rather than a live search, and the version on the site is months old at any given time. Treat it as indicative and contact the Dental Council if it matters.

Trades with no register

There is no statutory register in Ireland for plumbers doing non gas work, carpenters, roofers, plasterers, tilers, painters, landscapers or general handymen. Trade associations exist for several of these, and membership may mean something, but none of them is a regulator and none can stop a member trading.

For those trades the checks that are actually available to you are:

• The Companies Registration Office, for who you are really contracting with, and whether any director has been disqualified or restricted
• A VAT number check, where they have one
• Written proof of public liability insurance, confirmed with the insurer rather than taken on trust from a certificate
• References you actually follow up

That last one is dull and it is still the most reliable thing on the list.

What a register does not tell you

Every register on this page answers one narrow question: is this person or firm entered on this list today. None of them tells you whether the work will be any good, whether they will turn up, or whether they are solvent. A registration is a floor, not a recommendation.

Checked July 2026. Registers move and bodies get renamed. If a link here is dead, the register almost certainly still exists somewhere else on the same organisation's site.