With increasing focus from this Government on delivering major infrastructure projects across the country, the role of a civil engineer is becoming increasingly important.

From MetroLink to the Cork Luas project, civil engineers will play an outsized role in the future of Irish transport, housing, and quality of life.

But what is life like within the civil engineering industry?

On Down to Business with Bobby Kerr, Liam Gleeson, director at GK Consultant Engineering, said that the industry is “completely different” from a decade ago.

Mr. Gleeson said that the sector is “evolving all the time,” and is changing “very, very quickly.”

He recounted that when he began as a civil engineer, “you got lots of time to think and lots of time to consider your design,” while new engineers have to “learn on the job.”

“There’s still a hangover” from the crash

Also on the show was Eugene O’Brien, Adjunct Professor at UCD and Director at Research Driven Solutions, who said that the sector “crashed” during the financial crisis of 2008.

He said that graduates emigrated as civil engineers lost their jobs and that the industry had “not recovered since then.”

Mr. O’Brien said that a low demand for civil engineering courses remains from “the crash”, with university classes remaining small – despite the sector “crying out for engineers.”

He noted a “shortage at every level” of the sector, leading firms to look abroad for employees. He said graduates who attain work experience in the sector are often hired by the same companies before they graduate.

Cork “thriving” from civil engineering

Mary Maloney, a civil and structural engineer who was also on the show, argued that areas such as Cork were “thriving from construction.” She pointed to the proposed Cork Luas project, and development on Cork’s North and South docks.

She pointed to the number of cranes as a measure of the industry’s strength, and stated that “there’s a lot of them [cranes] in the skyline at the moment.”