Plumber, heating engineer or RGI installer? Which one your job needs

“Plumber” and “heating engineer” are not defined job titles in Ireland, and plenty of businesses use both. That is not a con: one person genuinely can do both, and many do. But underneath the titles there is a hard line, and it is not where most people assume. The line is not between trades. It is between work anyone competent may do and work the law restricts to a registered person.

Getting this straight before you ring around saves the wasted call where someone arrives, looks at the boiler and tells you they cannot touch it.

The part that is actually restricted

Gas work is restricted by law. Installing, servicing, repairing, replacing or removing a natural gas or LPG appliance, and any work on gas pipework, must be carried out by a Registered Gas Installer. Gas Networks Ireland puts it plainly: by law, only a Registered Gas Installer is permitted to work on domestic natural gas installations. The scheme operates under the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, and the obligation comes from the Energy (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2006. When the work is done you must be issued a Declaration of Conformance, confirming the installation conforms to I.S. 813.

A plumber who is not RGI registered cannot legally do any of that, however good they are at plumbing. Registration is per installer and it lapses, so check the register at rgi.ie rather than accepting a number over the phone.

Most domestic electrical work is restricted too. Under S.I. No. 264 of 2013, restricted electrical works may only be carried out and certified by a Registered Electrical Contractor, and anyone carrying them out without Safe Electric registration is liable to prosecution. That covers a new installation, modifying or replacing a distribution board, installing or replacing circuits, and work in the special locations listed in the wiring rules, which is why a bathroom is not ordinary territory. You should receive a Completion Certificate.

Safe Electric explicitly excludes some minor work from the restricted category: like-for-like replacement of a switch, moving a light fitting without affecting the circuit, and adding a socket to an existing circuit.

Oil is different again. Oil boilers sit outside the RGI scheme. OFTEC runs the competent person scheme for liquid fuel heating technicians and operates in the Republic of Ireland as well as the UK. There is no statutory equivalent to the gas rule, so OFTEC registration is a competence check rather than a legal gate, but it is the recognised one.

Plumbing itself is not a registered trade in Ireland. There is no register to check, no licence to lapse and no certificate to keep. For plumbing work, references, recent examples and evidence of public liability insurance carry the weight that a registration number carries elsewhere.

Working out which one to call

Ask what the work actually touches, rather than what the appliance is called.

Call a plumber for leaks, burst pipes, taps, wastes and traps, toilets and cisterns, bathroom pipework, cylinders, pumps, outside taps, and radiators, valves and heating pipework where the boiler itself is not being opened up.

Call a heating engineer for whole-system problems: a system that heats unevenly, sludge and power flushing, pump and zone valve failures, controls and zoning, radiator sizing, and anything where the question is why the house is not warm rather than why something is dripping. Then check what fuel is involved, because that decides the registration.

Call an RGI installer for anything on a natural gas or LPG appliance or gas pipework: servicing, repair, replacement, a new boiler, a gas hob, a gas fire, or capping off a supply. There is no room for judgement here.

Call an OFTEC registered technician for oil boiler servicing, repair and replacement, and oil tank work.

Call a Safe Electric registered contractor for a fuse board, any new circuit, anything in a bathroom, and the electrical side of an immersion, a heat pump or new heating controls.

The jobs that need more than one trade

Several common heating jobs cross the line mid-way through, and knowing that in advance is the difference between a coordinated job and three people blaming each other.

• A boiler replacement is RGI work at the appliance, but the system flush, the magnetic filter, any radiator or pipework alterations and the controls wiring are not all the same skill set. Ask who is doing which part.
• A heat pump is not gas work at all. It is a substantial electrical load, so it involves a Safe Electric registered contractor, plus plumbing for the heat distribution side. Where an SEAI grant is involved there is a technical assessment and a requirement to use an installer from SEAI’s registered list, and the terms change, so confirm current requirements with SEAI directly.
• An immersion or a heating control upgrade is plumbing plus electrical work, and whether the electrical part is restricted depends on whether a new circuit is being run or an existing one reused.
• A kitchen with a gas hob needs the gas connection made by an RGI installer even though the rest of the job is a fitter’s.

Questions worth asking on the phone

• Is this gas, oil, electric or a heat pump? (Ask yourself first; it decides everything else.)
• Are you RGI registered, and what is your registration number?
• Will I get a Declaration of Conformance for the gas work, or a Completion Certificate for the electrical work?
• Which parts of this job are you doing, and which parts will I need someone else for?
• Do you hold public liability insurance?

The short version

If it burns gas, it is RGI or nobody. If it burns oil, look for OFTEC. If it involves the fuse board, a new circuit or a bathroom, it is a Safe Electric registered contractor. If it is water in pipes and nothing is being certified, any competent plumber can do it and the checking is on you.