The CIF President has stated that the construction industry is key to ending boom and bust in the Irish economy. The Government’s efforts to end volatility in the Irish economy will be influenced greatly by whether the construction industry can become more productive and efficient. This will require much closer collaboration and alignment between Government and industry.
The CIF Annual Conference took place at The Hogan Suite, Croke Park Conference Centre.
Dominic Doheny, President, Construction Industry Federation (CIF) said: “This is our last chance to end the boom and bust cycle that has plagued the construction industry throughout our history. We have a unique opportunity to build a sustainable, stable industry in this economic cycle. With our partners in Government, we are taking steps now to do this. If we can continue to collaborate as we have been in the past few years on issues such as diversity, productivity and procurement, I think we should be ambitious enough to say we can end boom and bust. We have built and rebuilt Ireland many times, it’s now time for us to build a sustainable industry.
“I’m delighted to announce that the CIF will be developing a national research strategy for the construction industry in 2019. Phase one of this process is being launched in partnership with Galway/Mayo IT. We will be bringing all researchers across the Institutes of Technology and key CIF members in November to identify a shared research agenda. I want this to be seen as the first step on a road to the creation of a state-owned research body for construction in the form and scale of Teagasc.”
In his address ‘Building the Future,’ Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Eoghan Murphy TD told the conference: “Often in politics people will try and divide, they’ll try and create a false narrative and try to put us into different sides of the room. One of the things that I have noticed in Irish public life is this attempt to divide the public sector and the private sector, and one is good and one is bad depending on where you are standing. A lot of the people in this room will have worked in both and are currently working in the private sector; I think that dichotomy is nonsense. I think we work best when we work together towards the same aims. The point of Project Ireland 2040 was to give us that same destination that we could work to; We have that now and my ambition as Minister and our ambition as government is that through these new bodies and processes we have established, we can all work together to making Ireland the kind of Ireland we want to live in, which is the Ireland laid out in Project Ireland 2040.”
The conference featured national and international industry leaders including Henrik Lund-Nielsen expert in 3D construction printing, which is disrupting and modernising the industry worldwide; Sandi Rhys Jones OBE, Management consultant and pragmatic and practical champion for women in construction, engineering and science on addressing the gender mix in firms; and Chris Sexton, Technical Director, Crossrail, UK, who discussed the lessons Ireland can learn from London’s Crossrail as we embark on our own transport mega project, Metrolink.
