Housing and transport remain key sectors

Name: Clare Cashin

Title: Partner in the Projects and Construction Group of Philip Lee

Company: Philip Lee

What's your role in the company?

I am a partner in our Projects and Construction Group. Our group work on a range of exciting construction projects for both the public and private sector.

How are global economic conditions impacting your business this year?

We are very busy; supply chain issues have led to increased costs, the impact of inflation in the construction sector has impacted live infrastructure projects that are delayed or trying to proceed with revised pricing arrangements so there’s a lot of negotiation to keep projects on track.

Many clients were dealing with the fallout from the Covid-19 restrictions, as the lockdowns had a real impact on construction programmes in an industry where delay and time is central.

In what particular areas do you see opportunities for construction, engineering, architectural and project management companies in the future?

Health and education will continue to be busy as the government continues to press ahead with its plans under Project 2040. Off shore wind and renewables generally will be very active and professionals in the sector are gearing up for this.

Housing and transport remain key sectors.

What investment is needed by government in the construction industry to cater for the increase in population and employment levels?

Ensuring the investment in Project 2040 continues is important. To that end, investment by the government in projects such as the Build Digital Project is encouraging; this project is aimed at assisting the construction industry to improve its digital capability in the delivery of Project Ireland 2040. Linked to this is the need for investment in education at third level to keep up with the growth in demand.

What interesting construction projects have Philip Lee advised on this year?

In health infrastructure we have a significant footprint and are advising on the development of Community Nursing Units - a public private partnership where we act for the HSE in developing sites around Ireland. We are also advising on the development of numerous hospitals to include the National Maternity Hospital, the expansion of Beaumont, Limerick University Hospital and Mercy University Hospital in Cork.

In education, we are advising a number of the universities – we represent Trinity College Dublin on lots of exciting developments to include student accommodation and their flagship E3 Development. We also have exciting projects underway with NUI Galway, University of Limerick, DCU and Maynooth University, which range from their student centres to accommodation and STEM hubs.

We represent the NDFA on the Devolved Schools Building Programme helping to set up their framework for new schools builds and extensions and refurbishment of existing schools.

Social housing and mixed tenure developments feature heavily too. We act for several key players including the O’Flynn Group, First Step Homes, McGarrell Reilly, Westmeath County Council, Galway City Council and Limerick City and County Council.

We have advised on a number of flagship developments in the past year such as the Salesforce HQ at Spencer Place and the Meta European HQ in Ballsbridge.

Transport continues to be active. We advise the Port of Cork, Shannon Foynes Port Company and Bremore Port.

To summarise therefore, an absolute range of really interesting construction projects!