Linesight Reports Material Inflation Stabilising, but Ongoing Labour Skills Shortage And Logistics Challenge

Dublin, Ireland, October 14th, 2021 — Linesight, a global consultancy firm, today
announced the latest update to its Knowledge Centre, a construction industry resource
with key data, trends, indices and analyses across multiple sectors . The bi-annual
update provides a comprehensive view of the industry’s current challenges and
opportunities, and includes details on material inflation costs for Ireland with projections for the year ahead.  

“We are seeing a significant increase in construction demand across all sectors, representing a huge shift from our last update in March 2021, as the country finally emerges from COVID-19 restrictions”

 said Stephen Ashe, Senior Director, Linesight

“With record GDP growth reported in Quarter 3, and a better-than-expected budget deficit of €13.2 billion announced this week, we are seeing the pent-up demand from the past eighteen months materialise. However, there are significant new pressures on the industry, as we deal with material price escalation, skills shortages and continuing logistics and supply chain complexities driven largely by COVID-19 and Brexit. We are confident, however, that the industry will continue to respond with agility to these new challenges, as it has done throughout the pandemic.” 

Highlights from the latest edition of the Knowledge Centre for Ireland include: 

• Construction output has rebounded with a 7.7% quarterly
  increase in volume in Q2 and a 26.3% rise year-on-year on 2020 according to the
  CSO. The rebound is strongest in sectors such as residential, which has high
  pent-up demand., Linesight has revised its tender price forecast for the
  full-year 2021 to between 6% and 7% for large-scale projects and in excess of
  this for less significant projects. Construction employment has improved and stood at 127,300 for Q2 2021, with improvement expected. However, there is concern that 5,687 construction
  workers are still in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP),
  despite the shortage in industry skills to meet current construction demands. 
• The industry has seen huge spikes in material costs
  perpetuated by the perfect storm of Brexit and COVID-19. Key materials such as
  steel, timber and insulation have escalated to double-digit levels. We are
  seeing signs of stabilisation and recovery into 2022 
• The recent ‘Housing for All’ publication will aim to deliver
  300,000 new homes by the end of 2030 with a target of 33,000 per year. However,
  current forecasts indicated a more conservative completion rate of 22,000 in
  2021 with 27,000 forecast in 2022, representing a significant shortfall  
• Investment in the life sciences, pharma and data centre
  sectors continues to accelerate at pace as a result of demand stemming from
  COVID-19 along with the increased demand for cloud services. 

For in-depth analysis and data in key construction markets, please see the latest update to the Knowledge Centre at https://www.linesight.com/insights/regional-report/europe-2021/#reviewirl   

About Linesight 

Linesight is a multinational construction consultancy firm with over 45 years' experience, providing cost and project management services as well as project controls to the construction industry. Linesight works with Tier One clients across a multitude of sectors including Data Centres, Life Sciences, Commercial, High-Tech Industrial, Residential, Hospitality, Healthcare and Retail. Linesight’s specialist project teams, each with specific
skills and experience, provide enhanced predictability of project outcomes. greater cost efficiency and maximum value for money for their clients. For further information, please visit https://www.linesight.com/  

Media Contact 

Fiona D’Arcy for Linesight 

+353 (0) 872808828 

Fiona.Darcy@linesight.com