Damien Owens
Director General, Engineers Ireland
The challenges we face in infrastructure delivery can be surmounted, but we need the people to do it.
Newly published Government action plans have laid out both the systemic reasons for the inadequate supply of new housing stock and infrastructure, and approaches to speed up their delivery. These public policy analyses are timely interventions that will, hopefully, make a real impact in addressing shortfalls.
The planned initiatives to address the problem include a more proportional judicial review system, reforming Ireland’s fragmented and complex regulatory landscape, multi-year funding of projects while activating land on which building can take place, enabling investment and increasing the skills pool necessary to deliver housing at the required levels.
There is a shortage of engineers in all developed economies, and Ireland has to compete for this talent.
Engineers crucial to boosting housing delivery
Housing delivery does not exist in a bubble, as it also requires increased infrastructure. New onshore and offshore wind farms, an improved electricity grid, heightened capacity for water and wastewater delivery and transport services like Metrolink are required to ease the delivery of new housing. The same professionals, such as engineers, who are essential to the delivery of housing, will also be required to provide these valuable assets.
Last year, Engineers Ireland published research suggesting that more than 22,300 additional engineers would be required over the next decade to support Ireland’s economy. This does not consider the need for additional architects, surveyors, electricians, carpenters and many others required to meet our construction needs.
There is a shortage of engineers in all developed economies, and Ireland has to compete for this talent.
Opening pathways to help solve engineering talent shortage
There is a shortage of engineers in all developed economies, and Ireland has to compete for this talent. To safeguard our increasingly technology-dependent economy and provide critical infrastructure, we need to do more to encourage more students to choose engineering and remain in the profession once they graduate. The addition of STEM to the primary school curriculum is a welcome change, but more must be done.
Greater exposure to engineering and the work of engineers at a young age, additional support for career guidance teachers to enable them to clearly articulate the benefits of an engineering career and broadening pathways into engineering through alternative routes, such as apprenticeships, will all help.
