Skills shortages risk slowing housing and infrastructure delivery despite strong demand

A new report from Engineers Ireland warns that persistent skills shortages in engineering are constraining Ireland’s ability to deliver housing and critical infrastructure, with more than 40% of engineering employers saying it now takes between three and six months to fill roles.

Engineering 2026 – A Barometer of the Profession in Ireland shows that lengthy recruitment times are emerging as an obstacle to housing, energy, transport and water infrastructure delivery.

The report also highlights mounting concern within the profession over the condition of Ireland’s infrastructure. Just 17% of engineers rated overall infrastructure as good, while 41% described it as poor or inadequate. Housing emerged as the most acute weakness, with 47% of engineers considering housing infrastructure inadequate, the starkest negative assessment across all sectors measured.

The report warns that boosting housing supply will require not just faster construction, but enough engineering capacity to plan, design, and deliver developments, and to connect them to essential water, energy, and transport infrastructure.

Gender imbalances in perceptions of the profession were found to be a potential barrier to encouraging more women to become engineers and, thus, a barrier to growing the engineering workforce. When asked if they would consider pursuing engineering if changing career, women (40%) were twice as likely as men (21%) to disagree with the suggestion. Only about one-in-eight engineers in Ireland are women. Men were also 29% more likely than women to respond positively when asked if a career in engineering was “suitable for people like them”.

Speaking about the results contained in Engineering 2026, Engineers Ireland’s Director General, Damien Owens, said: “With modular homes being suggested to increase the supply of housing to the rental market, it’s important to remember that these Modern Methods of Construction are not a shortcut around engineering capacity.

“To deliver homes at scale while maintaining quality, safety and sustainability, we must also invest in the engineers and infrastructure systems that underpin those developments, from water and energy networks to transport and climate resilience.

“Engineering oversight is critical to ensuring that accelerated delivery does not compromise long term performance, particularly in areas such as building safety, energy efficiency, climate adaptation and asset lifecycle management.”

Engineers Ireland presents a clear message for policymakers and industry: Ireland’s infrastructural ambitions are achievable, but without addressing capacity bottlenecks, the report warns that Ireland risks falling short on housing delivery and wider infrastructure goals, not for a lack of ambition, but for a lack of the people necessary to deliver it.

Engineering 2026 is available at engineersireland.ie.