Editorials

The Irish Times view on construction employment: building up an industry

Some 100,000 more employees may be needed to deliver on all the plans

Workers monitor a crane lifting materials at a construction site in the Sandyford district of Dublin, Ireland, on Tuesday, May 11, 2021. The mass purchase of affordable houses — on the market for about 400,000 euros ($490,000) — set off a public firestorm and highlights the growing tension over the squeeze in urban housing and the role of large investors. Photographer: Paulo Nunes dos Santos/Bloomberg
Construction in the Sandyford district of Dublin: the industry requires tens of thousands of new employees to meet State goals. ( Phot: Paulo Nunes dos Santos/Bloomberg)
Thu Feb 26 2026 - 06:01 • 2 MIN READ

The Government is pushing ahead with a range of measures to try to speed up the delivery of housing and infrastructure. Just yesterday, Minister for Public Expenditure, Jack Chambers, announced a new unit in his department tasked with simplifying regulations to speed infrastructure delivery.

This realisation that the whole process needs to move with more urgency is welcome. But a report published today points to a key risk – tens of thousands of new construction workers need to be found to deliver housing, infrastructure and climate change projects.

The report, from Property Industry Ireland (PII), a part of Ibec, follows on from other studies underlining the need for a big increase in construction employment. But its findings are striking. The sector currently employs 177,600 workers. Around 100,000 more are estimated to be required by 2030. Allowing for retirements in the meantime, this means about 24,000 extra workers will be needed each year.

There is no point in sitting back and hoping the market will deliver this. Additional employment and productivity on this scale requires extensive investment in training and apprenticeships, a flow of skilled labour from abroad , an acceleration in the use of modern methods of construction and significant expansion across the industry itself. The need to attract more females into the construction workforce is one clear requirement.

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This creates difficult knock-on decisions – such as where an additional immigrant workforce will live. It will also require clear prioritisation and realistic timelines. It may simply not be possible to deliver everything at once. Will the house building workforce be sufficient, for example, to build large numbers of new houses and apartments while also retrofitting older ones?

On the basis of the plans outlined, construction is set to become a much larger part of the economy. This will be expensive and inconvenient, but delivered efficiently it can underpin economic and social development. Presuming, of course, we can find people to do the job.