Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My Department has continued to work closely with the construction sector through the construction sector group, CSG, to improve productivity and delivery capacity. The CSG provides a useful forum for engagement with the sector on these issues. The Building Innovation report published by my Department has identified a range of actions to drive innovation in the sector. There are 43 actions in this report. These are being progressed by key industry players such as the Construction Industry Federation, Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, RIAI, Engineers Ireland, and the Office of Government Procurement, OGP.

To drive the delivery of seven specific actions from the Building Innovation report, an innovation and digital adoption subgroup of the CSG has been established. Important initiatives that have been launched include the build digital project to look at how we can better digitise the construction sector; construct innovate, to provide and fund cutting edge research; and the demonstration park for modern methods of construction to showcase innovative building techniques. The build digital project is funded through a €2.5 million grant from my Department and is led by Technological University Dublin. This project will support the construction sector to deliver future public projects to a higher standard using digital efficiencies. Furthermore, a leadership and integration group, led by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, has been established. This group will ensure a co-ordinated approach between new and existing entities of new building methods and will focus on the risks, challenges, and barriers to promote modern methods of construction. The group has commenced looking at the environment we have in this country for MMC, and to facilitate the further development of this sector, we will be shortly publishing a procurement roadmap to help facilitate the acceleration of these kind of technologies.

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