Speech by Taoiseach Micheál Martin at the CIF Annual Conference 2025 in Croke Park

Speech by Taoiseach Micheál Martin at the CIF Annual Conference 2025 in Croke Park

• From: Department of the Taoiseach

• Published on: 30 September 2025
• Last updated on: 30 September 2025

A dhaoine uaisle, maidin maith dhaoibh go léir.

Distinguished guests, ladies, and gentlemen. Good morning. It is my pleasure to join you here in Croke Park for your annual conference.

Go raibh maith agaibh as ucht an deis seo labhairt libh inniu ar an ndíriú láidir a gcuirfimid, mar rialtas, ar chruthú timpeallacht polasaí seasmhach, maidir le forbairt bhonneagair, tithíocht agus tacaíocht a thabhairt dár dtionscal foirgníochta sa todhchaí.

A special word of thanks to Hubert, Stephen and Méabh for the invitation and warm welcome to Croke Park this morning.

I would especially like to wish Hubert well in his imminent retirement and thank him for his contribution over the years.

This year we also mark a very special milestone in celebrating the Construction Industry Federation's 90th anniversary. Over these years, the federation and your members have been critically important partners for Government in delivering much needed infrastructure in our country.

Under the Programme for Government, we have set out our ambitions over the next five years to make our economy more competitive, provide much-needed housing, attract and retain investment and foster regional development.

A forward-looking, supportive construction sector is key to making this vision a reality. Whether it be the delivery of homes, key infrastructure projects, community spaces or business environments, your role is essential to the continued transformation of our country.

Infrastructure: National Development Plan Review

We understand the importance of providing certainty, predictability and a clear vision of what we aim to achieve. Our revised National Development Plan, published in July, represents that step-change needed in the approach to infrastructure delivery in the years ahead. The largest ever capital investment in the history of the state, the Plan sets out a total investment of €275.4bn.

We are releasing funds from many and varied sources because we understand the need and know that now is the time to invest in our future.

We will focus on bridging the infrastructure deficit by investing heavily in housing, energy, water, and transport.

The next 5 years will see over €24 billion invested in key transport programmes. We are committing to delivery of mega projects, such as Metrolink, and I want to acknowledge the quality of the recent Market Event, where I was genuinely encouraged by the level of engagement and interest from industry.

We are investing in water, with a commitment of over €12 billion for water and wastewater services.

We are investing heavily in our energy infrastructure, to future-proof Ireland's electricity system and ensure it can meet the growing demands of our economy, our homes, and our climate targets.

We have redoubled our commitment to significantly scale up housing, with over €28 billion being made available to the Department of Housing over the coming 5 years.

We have had much discussion and commentary about our infrastructure issues, their impact on our economy and the risk that they pose to our continued prosperity.

I want the legacy of this Government to be that we put our available investment into delivering on this priority, for this generation and for generations to come.

This plan provides the stability and certainty you need to plan effectively, allocate resources, and invest in capacity and innovation.

Of course, we recognise that such significant investment does not come without delivery challenges. We have heard time and again that we have an issue in this country with long timelines, too much red tape, too many decisions ending up in the courts for arbitration.

Our new Infrastructure Division in the Department of Public Expenditure is working to implement the reforms required to maximise the efficiency of delivery of the programmes we are investing in.

The Division published a report over the summer which puts colour on issues which you here are experiencing daily - the regulatory and legal landscape around the work you do is increasingly complex and difficult to navigate.

I want to assure you that we are focussed on improving the situation.

The Department of Public Expenditure is now developing targeted reforms and an action plan which will improve our delivery and execution so that we get the return we need on our investment.

Housing

Over the past number of years, we have seen a significant increase in housing supply - with almost 148,500 new homes delivered since the start of 2020. Housing output for the first half of 2025 is very encouraging as well.

But we need to do much more.

Housing is the single most urgent and important social and economic issue facing our country at this moment in time, one that this Government is determined to get to grips with.

This is reflected in actions we are taking and funding we are investing. This year alone will see €7.5bn in capital being made available for housing.

Overall, we believe that increased Government expenditure and investment in this area will ultimately lead to lower housing costs for households in our society.

Reforms

Since coming into office, we have brought forward a suite of measures to boost the delivery of homes, provide policy certainty, and respond to costs and viability challenges faced by the construction sector.

We will very shortly publish our new National Housing Plan, setting the course for the coming years to scale up our delivery of homes.

Measures in the plan will complement reforms and measures already underway, including the implementation of the Planning and Development Act, reform of rent pressure zones, new guidelines on apartment standards and the extension to planning permissions which are about to expire.

The need to find the right mix of measures to address the viability of apartment development is also front and centre in our current considerations.

Returning to my theme of today, creating a stable policy environment, it is clear that we need to attract private finance at significant scale in order to meet our ambitions. We are focussed, as a Government, on crowding in private sector investment.

By clarifying our level of investment, our priorities, and addressing some of our current complexity in delivery, we are confident that we will be able to create stability and certainty for the coming years to attract private sector investment to work in partnership with the state.

Construction Skills and Innovation

More broadly on skills and innovation, Government understands that investing in these areas is essential to accelerating housing and infrastructure delivery.

Labour shortages in our construction workforce represent a key structural barrier to the delivery of housing and infrastructure. This is why we must continue to invest and expand the capacity of our construction sector.

Since 2020, we have made record investments in apprenticeships and construction training. In 2025 alone, funding increased by 83% to €77.4m.

The Government is committed to working with the Construction Industry Federation and other stakeholders to meet our national skills needs. We will explore all options to ensure that we attract more workers into the sector.

I don't need to convince anyone in this room about the potential of Modern Methods of Construction, which is central to our innovation agenda.

Under the new National Housing Plan, we will be including a range of initiatives to further support the adoption of MMC. Among these include the promotion of greater innovation in our public housing programme, improving and accelerating necessary certification processes and bringing forward measures to meet the growing demand for specialised MMC skills. We remain committed to supporting industry in this transformation.

We also recognise the need to develop the construction sector in Ireland. The plan will have a specific focus on scaling up SMEs in the sector, ensuring that we have the expertise and scale needed to meet our ambition.

As we move forward with clarity of funding and plans, we look to our partners in industry to support us in optimising this investment.

We need your help, we need more innovation, more companies developing at scale, more creativity, and promotion of modern methods of construction if we are to meet our ambition.

We are confident that the private sector will rally and meet the challenge that confronts us all in relation to these issues.

All of you in this room and those you represent have a role to play in this.

I am confident that we can build on our success to date, increase productivity and deliver for people living in Ireland, now and into the future. I thank you for the contribution you are making to this vision.

Caithfimid leanúint ar aghaidh caidrimh láidre a thógáil agus teacht le chéile chun ár riachtanais bhonneagair agus tithíochta a bhaint amach. Is deis iontach é an ócáid bhliantúil seo chun aire a thabhairt ar an ngealltanas seo.

ENDS