Budget 2024 has just been delivered and we are still waiting on a concrete date for the election. Much like last year, the residential sector and the cost-of-living crisis dominates most of the discussion pieces in the media.

There have recently been a couple of very damning reports into public sector construction projects which seem to offer very little value for money. These projects need to be properly analysed and establish why they failed and publish these findings so that “learnings” can be made. Otherwise, the pace of public projects will crank even slower as everyone will be double checking themselves for fear of being exposed in the national media. We do not need public sector projects to be moving at a slower pace than they are currently.

Last year (2023) saw the highest level of residential construction since the Celtic Tiger era with just under 33,000 units completed. However, the latest data points to a slowdown in residential activity, suggesting the industry may struggle to meet the State’s target of 33,450 completions for 2024 and is more likely to decline to 32,000 this year.

It is estimated that construction output will decline by 1% in 2024, owing to high material costs and energy prices. How our industry grows over the next few years will depend on several key challenges such as a skills / labour shortage, material costs rising, overcoming red tape / legal challenges to developments and our integration of more sustainable construction and energy efficient methods for our building stock.

BMP are delighted to be striding into their 56th year of business where we continue to retain experienced staff and are still recruiting young candidates to ensure that we fulfil the high standards of performance that we set ourselves. The Irish marketplace is relatively small, and it is massively important to us that we build on existing relationships with Design Teams and Clients.

Over the past 12 months we have continued our long line of delivering healthcare projects with refurbishments of the Ultrasound Ward, extension of the Bone Marrow Unit and phased upgrades to the Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory in St. James’s Hospital and the design and build of the Surgical Hub in Mount Carmel.

We have retained our links with Trinity College completing the refurbishment of the Basement level of the Ussher Library to create an Interim Study Centre which was part of the enabling works to the main Old Library refurbishment. We continue to work on behalf of the OPW on several fitout and restoration projects.

We also continue to excel in Conservation & Restoration projects for a wide array of Clients from Ambassador’s residences on Ailesbury Road to Courthouses in Portumna, Market Quarters in Thurles and magnificent properties on Parnell Square. These projects take extra special care as a Quantity Surveyor but are extremely satisfying when you see the finished product.

We have carried out reinstatement valuations for numerous health, agricultural & educational campuses recently which builds on our huge experience in this area. We also continue to value ecclesiastical properties and our last was the magnificent St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh.

We are delighted to continue to work with some of the leading main contractors in Ireland and assist them on many varied projects from data centres to office blocks and multi storey residential projects.

We hope that as a company we keep rising to all these challenges in the next 12 months.

Damien Morgan MSCSI MRICS Director
Brendan Merry & Partners
October 2024