Home to Work in Association with CIF

One of the major challenges facing the construction industry over the next three years is the lack of skilled personnel available to complete the regeneration of Ireland’s built landscape.

There is an estimated shortage of 112,000 people in the industry, with a particular shortage of experienced architects and engineers at all levels.

As well as engineers and architects, skilled craftspeople are desperately needed – the number of skilled craftspeople working in Ireland in 2015 was 48,900, but an additional 36,000 skilled craftspeople (including apprentices) will be needed by 2020.

Over the next six weeks, Construction Network Ireland will be running a series of interviews with returned emigrants who have come home to work in the industry in Ireland, to gain an insight into generation emigration – why they left, why they came home and their hopes and fears for the future.

Through this we hope to give insight into the expectations they have about working in Ireland, what motivated them to return home, and discover what Ireland and the construction industry can do to attract valuable personnel back to Ireland.

Bringing Ireland’s lost generation of construction workers home must become a priority not just for the industry, but for the wider economy as a whole. Without them, Ireland’s recovery cannot happen.

Construction Network Ireland are delighted to be working on this exciting series with the Construction Industry Federation (CIF). The CIF’s leadership in the industry and CNI’s readership of Irish construction professionals based all over the world make it a powerful combination.