Engineers should be allowed freely advertise their services, the Competition Authority said yesterday.

Restrictions on advertising must be lifted if the sector is to become fully competitive, the Competition Authority warned in the first of its consultation documents into competition in the building, medical and legal professions.

Practitioners are currently discouraged from advertising by engineering's two major professional bodies, the Institution of Engineers of Ireland (IEI) and the Association of Consulting Engineers of Ireland (ACEI), the authority stated.

The IEI code of practise caps the size of press adverts and insists they must be "discreet and moderate".

The ACEI has similar restrictions, except for the prohibition on size.

However, the authority's assessment of the industry was broadly upbeat, with the consultation paper reporting "strong indications" of competition and an effective regime of self-regulation.

Customer satisfaction is high, there is a general lack of complaints concerning high price and low quality, although there are some barriers to entry, it said.

A number of minor technical reforms were suggested - adoption of which by the professional bodies would provide them with a "safe harbour" from Competition Authority criticism.

Mr John Fingleton, chairman of the authority said: "This report indicates strong competition among engineers and engineering firms, but also indicates a number of areas for improvement.

"The key areas the Competition Authority is looking at include the barriers to entry into the profession, limitation on advertising by practitioners and the membership and rules of the professional bodies."