Irish builders are increasingly deploying resources towards big international projects and away from the domestic sector, the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) has said, due to uncertainty in the infrastructure pipeline here amid planning snarl-ups.
The lobby group’s latest outlook survey for the sector reveals that one in four big construction firms in the Republic are currently exporting their services.
Of the more than 220 builders the CIF surveyed, slightly over half said their export revenues had remained stable in the first quarter of the year compared with the previous three months.
A significant 31 per cent, however, said export revenues had increased compared with the first three months of 2025. Almost half of the construction firms surveyed said they anticipate a jump in export revenues in the second quarter.
Data centres and pharmaceutical plants were the most common foreign projects that Irish construction companies delivered in the first quarter of the year, according to the survey results.
CIF director general Hubert Fitzpatrick said the research evinces a clear trend within the industry to redeploy resources to international projects “due to persistent uncertainty in Ireland’s infrastructure pipeline”.
Mr Fitzpatrick said workforce capacity within the sector is not “a limiting factor” to delivering Irish projects, despite public commentary to the contrary.
Rather, the “key barriers” to companies delivering projects in the Republic “lie outside the industry, with persistent planning delays, a lack of zoned land and slow delivery of enabling infrastructure like water and electricity”.
Mr Fitzpatrick said: “Irish construction companies want to work in Ireland and deliver for the population. It is in the national interest that constraints, particularly around planning and funding, are removed by Government to unlock vital construction projects.
“The sector has the labour capacity and capability to deliver critical major infrastructure, including water, energy, new housing, transport, educational and commercial development. But consistent roadblocks mean that for many companies, a reliable pipeline of work is not available in Ireland.”
Just 29 per cent of construction firms surveyed reported a year-on-year increase in new orders in the first three months of 2025, with half of respondents in the civil engineering and infrastructure subsectors saying new orders fell.
All other sectors, including residential and commercial construction, expect an uplift in new orders in the second quarter, but smaller firms are generally less positive about their prospects.
Almost half of the respondents said the pricing of projects had increased year-on-year, while 41 per cent expect further growth in the three months to the end of June. Six in 10 builders told CIF they also expect the cost of raw materials to increase in the second quarter of the year.
