Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Through the Housing for All strategy, and specifically the strategy’s Industry Capability Working Group, my Department is working with a range of partners across Government to ensure that the skills needs across all construction activities – housing new builds, infrastructural development, and retrofit – are fully addressed and we deliver on the targets set out in Housing for All, Project Ireland 2040 and the National Retrofitting Programme.

The Working Group is chaired by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, which is responsible for construction related training, including apprenticeships, across the Further Education and Training and Higher Education sectors. The Working Group’s focus is on leading initiatives associated with innovation and productivity, skills and labour, enterprise support, standards and compliance, and sectoral engagement.

Its skills planning is framed by the Report on the Analysis of Skills for Residential Construction and Retrofitting 2023-2030, which was commissioned and published by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in late 2022.

Supplementing this, the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN) currently undertaking a study to determine the skills required to transform Ireland’s construction sector through widespread adoption of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), including offsite manufacturing. The study will seek to identify the nature and quantify the scale of the skills needs of enterprises supporting the transition to MMC in the coming decade; and develop a suite of recommendations that can be drawn up to ensure that the forecasted MMC skills needs are fully addressed through our education and training system and any other relevant source of skills supply. The final results of the study will be presented to the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs and publication of the report is expected in Q2 2024.

More immediately, my Department’s chief contribution towards addressing our construction sector skills needs is through the facilitation of international recruitment, which is being progressed by the Housing for All International Recruitment subgroup, and specifically the recruitment of non-EEA construction workers through the employment permits system.

In 2022, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment issued 1,474 employment permits for roles within the construction sector, an increase of 142 per cent on 2021 levels. In 2023, 1,349 employment permits were issued for roles in the sector. These increases have come as a result of comprehensive changes to eligibility criteria for employment permits made by the Department since April 2019.

The result is that most construction occupations, including those key to the delivery of the National Retrofitting Programme, are now eligible for an employment permit. Those roles eligible for a critical skills employment permit include: Architect, Architectural Technologist, Civil Engineer, Construction Project Manager, Electrical Engineer, Façade Designer, Mechanical Engineer, Mechanical and Electrical Engineers with BIM expertise, Quantity Surveyor, Setting out Engineer, Site Manager, and Structural/Site Engineer.

Those roles eligible for a General Employment Permit include: Architectural Technician, Bricklayer, Carpenter and Joiner, Civil and Structural Engineering Technician, Construction and Building Trades Supervisor, Construction Safety Manager, Construction Safety Officer, Crane Driver, Draughtsperson, Electrician, Floorer and Wall Tiler, Foreman, Furniture Makers and other Craft Woodworkers, Glazier, Window Fabricator and Fitter, Mason, Painter and Decorator, Plasterer, Plumber and Heating and Ventilating Engineer, Roofer, Roof Tiler and Slater, Scaffolder, Stager and Rigger, Sheet Metal Worker, Shuttering Carpenter, and Welding Trade.

My Department will continue to be responsive to demonstrated skills needs across construction activities, through the timely and efficient operation of our employment permits system.

All of these efforts have been delivering real results and there are growing numbers of people employed in the construction sector. The CSO labour force survey of Q4 2023 shows when compared with pre-covid levels of Q4 2019, the total employment in the sector has grown by 14,300.