Gas industry news
It’s colourless, it’s odourless, It’s hard to detect. So carbon monoxide deserves Your respect. Plumbing & Heating Magazine’s Denise Maguire meets RGII Inspections Manager, William Wilson - the second generation Wilson to forge a career in the gas safety industry…
The Easy Rider who is dedicated to gas safety
T
he Register of Gas Installers of Ireland (RGII) aims to improve the safety of gas installations and reduce the number of accidents caused by unsafe installations. It’s also responsible for registering gas installers. William Wilson has held the position of Inspections Manager at RGII for the past seven years and he also carries out the function of Gas Safety Officer on behalf of the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) when investigating illegal gas works. A member of various groups, including the Institute of Domestic Heating Engineers (IDHE), the Technical Standards Committee TC2 (Gas Installations) at the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) and a Technical Auditor for the Irish National
Accreditation Board (INAB), it’s safe to say William is an expert when it comes to gas safety. Before joining the Register, he worked for Bord Gáis for 38 years. “I began my career in Bord Gáis as a gas fitter and held various roles over the 38 years, including inspection manager and technical training manager.” Moving to RGII was a natural progression for William. “Registration was on a voluntary basis when I was inspection manager at Bord Gais but then moved onto the new regulations body (RGII), so really it was the right time to move on.” William is the second generation Wilson with a passion for safety in the gas industry. His father, also called William, clocked up 52 years in Bord Gáis before retiring.
“My father was 13 when he began his career at Bord Gáis. Like myself, he started his career as a gas fitter and finished as a training manager. It really was lovely to follow him into the gas industry. It was a great career then and I believe it still is.” William was 16 years of age when he followed in his father’s footsteps by joining Bord Gáis as an apprentice gas fitter. “For my first four years I was employed by Alliance & Dublin Consumers’ Gas Company, as it was then referred to. I was a supervisor in the conversion to natural gas process in the 80s. After that I became a training manager, looking after all the technical training for gas fitters and contractors both on the distribution side and the installation side.”
“The aim of the campaign is to highlight the fact that carbon monoxide (CO) can and does, kill.” 20 | PLUMBING & HEATING MAGAZINE
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