Construction industry in the midst of change as it tackles global issues

As the world faces major economic and environmental challenges, the construction industry is set to play a huge role in how the world will be shaped

With the theme ‘constructing a competitive economy’, the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) annual conference set the standard high and had the attendance to back it up.

More than 30 exhibitors filled the halls of Croke Park last Thursday, as a packed audience took in the industry’s present and future. With more than 30 speakers throughout the day, there was much to get through and Ivan Yates, the entrepreneur and broadcaster, had his work cut out as summit chair.

Setting the mood for the day, Joe Conway, president of CIF, delivered the opening address, dividing the challenges facing the industry into five themes: resourcing and planning; infrastructure and regional development; residential supply; sustainability; and cultivating people skills.

An address from Hubert Fitzpatrick, director general of CIF, followed. He said the annual conference holds a special place where it creates a unique platform that brings all strands of the industry together.

“I’m confident, given the expertise represented in today’s line-up, we’re well placed to discover solutions and advance our collective thinking as a sector,” he said.

Once the welcomes were out of the way, it was time to hear about the economic and market outlook with Loretta O'Sullivan, chief economist at EY, who gave a macroeconomic view of the Irish and world economies.

Outlining the optimistic elements as well as the challenges, she said that the economy and labour market have been resilient in a volatile period and that new opportunities will emerge.

“The Irish economy has plenty of strengths to leverage and take advantage of these new opportunities and support sustainable and inclusive growth,” she said. “But it does also have some constraints, and it’s important to address these constraints and bottlenecks that have the potential to undermine that growth.”

Things became more settled with the first fireside chat of the day, with Mary Buckley, executive director of the IDA, and Pádraig Keane, the vice president and general manager of Cruiserath Biologics Campus at Bristol Myers Squibb, chatting about keeping up a steady flow of FDI into Ireland.

Buckley is confident about Ireland’s ability to bring in FDI – she highlighted a vast number of projects and expansions happening across the country – split evenly between Dublin and the rest of the country – but stressed it can’t be taken for granted.

“We have a future of FDI that is strong, our base is strong, and many of the investments we win will be from our existing base,” she explained. “But we can’t take it for granted, and we have to ensure we have the infrastructure to carry capacity and the talent policies that are needed for the future.”

After that came the government address from Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who gave a comprehensive view of the government’s work in tackling the many areas construction touches upon.

“Big projects will always take time; the problem is they’re taking too long,” he said. “We need to do better and make some changes because we need to step up our level of ambition to keep pace with a rapidly growing population.”

The first panel session looked at climate change and how Ireland’s built environment can show resilience in the face of it. This featured Alasdair Henderson, executive director of Ireland for BAM UK and Ireland; Anne Graham, chief executive of the National Transport Authority; Eamonn Stapleton, chair of CIF ESG Panel, CIF vice president and managing director of Clonmel Enterprises; and Tom Kelly, divisional manager of Industrial and Life Sciences with Enterprise Ireland.

Henderson said it’s an extraordinary industry to be part of and it will play a substantial role in shaping Irish and global life.

“If you look at the challenges Ireland and the world has had for 50 years with global warming, construction is uniquely placed to answer those questions,” he stated. “It has the most important 50 years ahead of it.”

Hitting barriers and breaking them

After the coffee break and exhibition viewing, the audience was greeted by Paschal Donohoe TD, Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, who gave his ministerial address. He revealed that in line with the NDP, an additional €900 million will be made available in Budget 2024, bringing total capital expenditure in 2024 to just over €12.8 billion.

Next was the panel discussion on infrastructure delivery and providing what is needed for a strong, growing economy. Taking part in this were Jerry Grant, chairperson of Dublin Port Company; Kevin Meaney, principal officer of the National Investment Office at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform; Luke Hardcastle, director of government and infrastructure at EY Ireland, and Brian Sheehan, director of infrastructure delivery at Uisce Éireann.

Speaking about the planning reform bill, Sheehan mentioned that Uisce Éireann experience a lot of success in local planning processes yet one of the areas they get stuck in is appeals or judicial reviews, a process that could potentially set projects back years.

This led on to the following fireside chat with Niamh McGovern, partner at Arthur Cox, on the legal and regulatory developments impacting the sector. In a detailed and comprehensive discussion, McGovern and Yates touched upon topics such as public work contracts; REPowerEU, the EU’s plan to rapidly reduce dependence on Russian fossil fuels and accelerate the move to renewables; and residential zone tax.

Before the lunch break, the penultimate panel dealt with the burning question of how to increase the housing supply in Ireland. Tackling this significant issue was John Downey, managing director for Downey Planning; Kate Rhatigan, project director for Winterbrook Property Developers; Michael Kelleher, group operations director of O’Flynn Group; and Parag Joglekar, director of investment and development for Respond.

Joglekar touched upon how necessary collaboration across all sectors is to Ireland’s aims yet while Downey was optimistic that Ireland would hit the target of 30,000 new homes this year, he stated that such targets do not match the reality.

“That target should be 50,000 to 60,000, and we’re only fooling ourselves and the housing crisis until we realise the Housing for All target was incorrect,” he said

To finish the morning’s proceedings, Bill Hill, chief executive of the Lighthouse Club, launched two new initiatives, one being an online portal to help those in the construction industry with their welfare and well-being.

To date, it has visited over 60 sites, engaged 9,000 workers and made seven safeguarding interventions, all in the name of breaking the stigma surrounding mental illness. “I can say hand on heart that the new service we’re providing and that you are supporting is saving lives in our industry,” Hill said.

Addressing the skills shortage

Once lunch was done and dusted, Yates welcomed the room back and launched straight into the next talk. Philip Crampton, president of the Federation of European International Contractors (FIEC), came on to speak about how it and its partners are working on recommended principles to guide the future reconstruction of Ukraine.

One of the major requests from Ukraine is for skills training when the war stops, and Crampton mentioned the appetite for information to help rebuild Ukrainian homes, infrastructures, and cities.

The final panel of the summit focused on the growing need for new skills and ways of working. This was discussed by Dr Mary-Liz Trant, director of the National Apprenticeship Office (NAO); John O’Shaughnessy, managing director at Clancy; and Jonathan Reinhardt, chartered architectural technologist at MCIAT, diatec technical consultant and assistant lecturer in TUD Architectural Technology.

Apprenticeships were touched upon a lot throughout the discussion and Dr Trant mentioned the impact adding them to the CAO form has had.

“Our experience adding apprenticeships to the CAO has been so positive,” she said. “There’s further education offers, higher education offers and apprenticeships, so it’s generating conversations around the table at home. When the CAO is being worked on, parents and students look at all the options, so it’s getting it on the table as a discussion.”

Fitzpatrick gave the closing remarks for the summit, describing it as a comprehensive day. He gave special mention to the presence of the Taoiseach and the minister, saying it showed how important they saw the partnership between government and the construction industry as being.

The route to net-zero

That wasn’t the end of the day itself, as there were dedicated, bespoke seminars, the first in the summit’s history, providing a deep dive for industry leaders on net zero.

First up on this was Robert Lakey, commercial director at Diatec, chatting about how digital innovations can help create more sustainable solutions. Speaking about digital transformation strategies, which he mentioned were sustainable, Lakey highlighted how the greater efficiencies they bring can mean less waste in the real world.

“Anything that can make your design and on-site processes more efficient, we can help you with digital technology,” he said. “You often find the errors there before they get really expensive, and we can help re-engineer your processes to find those errors so you’re not wasting material and you’re environmentally friendly.”

The final panel of the day centred on on decarbonising construction and the challenges the industry faces to achieve net zero. Taking part in this were Ian O’Connor, head of carbon management at John Sisk & Son; Orla Coyle, head of energy and sustainability at Savills; PJ Ryan, head of energy and sustainability at CIF; and Seán Armstrong, head of the climate and construction innovation unit for the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

One of the significant challenges for SMEs is in being able to adapt to new energy and sustainability (ESG) requirements. Ryan mentioned that this issue would require addressing as the sheer scope of it is overwhelming for many, meaning standardisation is needed.

“It’s growing, and it’s easy to get completely overwhelmed. That’s the great thing about the EU grabbing it by the horns and they are going to standardise it," said Ryan.

“ESG data will be audited and treated the same as your financial statement, and that’s going to standardise everything and hopefully add certainty.”

When Yates asked the panel for a critical message for the audience to take away, Ryan advised those attending not to get overwhelmed and to start small. As Yates gave his closing remarks, the aims for the construction industry were set, and how it achieves them will shape the world.