Irish Construction Industry News November 2014

Irish Construction Industry News, a brief round up for November 2014

The recovery in the Irish construction sector continued to rise in October, with a large rise in activity, new orders and employment, according to the Ulster Bank Construction Purchasing Managers Index.

Their reading was the second highest since the survey began in June 2000, with November 2004 the only month to have seen a faster expansion.

Commenting on the survey, Simon Barry, Chief Economist Republic of Ireland at Ulster Bank, says that “Both housing and commercial activity registered another month of particularly rapid rises. A return to marginally positive growth in civil engineering meant that survey respondents are reporting a broadening, as well as a strengthening, of the sectors recovery dynamic.”

He goes on to say “ The sustained increases in both activity and orders continue to promote more favourable trends in staffing levels, with the employment index also hitting a 10-year high in the latest survey as the pace of hiring increased further.”

As was the case with activity and new orders, the rise in employment in October was one of the sharpest seen in the history of the survey. Companies raised staffing levels in line with higher workloads.

Two major construction projects planned for Dublin

A report in the Irish Times dated Thursday November 6 2014 states that that 2 major construction projects are being planned for Dublin in the next year.  Funding for construction of council housing in Dublin city is to more than double with €240 million to be spent over the next 3 years.  The €240 million will provide 551 homes for the citys social housing waiting list.  Dublin City council announced it will spend just over€45 million for local authority housing construction projects in 2015.

New bio-pharmaceutical facility to be built in North County Dublin

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company recently announced plans to construct a new state-of-the-art, large-scale biologics manufacturing facility in Cruiserath, County Dublin. 1,000 construction jobs will  be created in the initial phase and the facility will support up to 400 jobs for skilled professionals. . The completion of the facility, including commissioning and validation, is anticipated to take approximately four years and is estimated to be operational in 2019.