In 2021, the Irish Government released its ‘Housing for All’ strategy, aimed at developing higher-quality housing across the country. The government’s overall objective is that every Irish citizen should have access to good quality homes:

• To purchase or rent at an affordable price
• Built to a high standard and in the right place
• Offering a high quality of life

One of the ways the government is meeting this plan is through the use of offsite construction.

What is being done?

But what steps is the Irish Government taking in increasing the understanding and adoption of offsite technology?

Céline McHugh is a Principal at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, and she has helped develop the government’s Construction and Enterprise Innovation Policy, entirely focused on ways to develop innovative methods of construction.

Speaking at MMC Ireland, held earlier this year, Céline outlined the steps her department had taken so far in order to meet the Housing for All strategy.

She said: “One of the key developments since our involvement in Housing for All has been to embrace the challenge it presents, to drive productivity and innovation in the delivery of housing, and to examine how best we can encourage and enable the uptake of modern methods of construction.”

Building relationships

One of the key issues slowing the adoption of offsite technology is a lack of communication between those involved in its use, something Céline’s department is keen to remedy.

“My department has established the MMC Leadership and Integration Group, which involves various government departments, bringing them together along with key agencies and industry through the construction sector,” she added.

“One of the key roles for that Leadership and Integration Group is to ensure that the initiatives taken by government to support MMC are done in an integrated way. It’s really important that we have a coherent approach across the various initiatives, not just a couple of specific areas.

“Enabling innovation in any sector requires a collaborative approach and knowledge transfer and there’s a huge relationship now in this sector. The advances in Ireland are particularly strong and there’s lots to learn and share in that respect.”

So far, the work in building relationships between departments has been successful, and a roadmap has been developed.

“One of the key outputs has been a road map for the increased adoption of MMC in the public housing delivery,” explained Céline.

“It focuses on the delivery of public sector housing, but the relevance of this approach extends far beyond housing and provides a framework for us to move forward and work together.”

One of the external bodies the Construction and Enterprise Innovation Policy Unit has been working with is the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI), Ireland’s official standards body.

This collaboration involves the development of new standards, focused entirely on offsite construction.

Céline added: “We have been looking very closely at the work of NSAI, who play a key role in helping the industry translate innovation into market applications and ensuring they are in compliance with the building regulations. They are a key part of the ecosystem and we have now established dedicated resources within NSAI to focus on MMC.

“The team in NSAI will be boosted this year with further funding to address the uptick in demand for NSAI certification and they are strengthening their information support and focusing on reducing cycle time around the process of agreement certification.”

With these collaborations in mind and with a road map now in place, Céline says she is hopeful that offsite technology will continue to develop and flourish in Ireland.

“There is an opportunity now for the sector to embrace MMC, to work with government and to work together to build that sustainable resilient construction industry with innovation and innovation adoption at its core,” she added.

MMC Ireland will be present at Offsite Expo on September 17-18. For more information and to register for your FREE tickets, please visit offsite-expo.co.uk

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And to learn more about MMC Ireland, please visit mmcireland.ie