Engineers Ireland president Dave Murphy finds that the country needs a coordinated national response to address Ireland’s growing engineering skills shortage.

Dave Murphy, president of Engineers Ireland, is calling for an immediate coordinated national response to address Ireland’s growing engineering skills shortage. 

He warns that the country risks falling behind in its ambitions for housing, infrastructure, energy and industrial development if these sectors lack the skilled professionals needed to drive innovation.  

As part of his presidential address titled ‘Who will engineer Ireland’s future? Why Ireland’s engineering shortage matters and what we can do about it’, Murphy explores how Ireland may require up to 30,000 additional engineers by 2031, in order to meet demands across housing, energy, water, transport, manufacturing and technology.

To address the issue, Murphy proposes the establishment of an Irish Engineering Talent Forum and a major national campaign that would encourage young people to consider a career in engineering. 

The forum would aim to combine governmental and industry stakeholders as they monitor Ireland’s engineering talent pipeline, beginning at the secondary school level and tracking progress through education, graduation, employment and even retirement. 

He said: “Young people do not fall in love with professions. They fall in love with possibilities and engineering offers extraordinary possibilities. 

“We must clearly show them the positive impact that engineers have in every corner of this country: designing renewable energy systems, delivering housing and water infrastructure, developing medical devices, and creating new technologies.”

The Irish Engineering Talent Forum would also commit to a national capacity plan and a multi-year engineering recruitment campaign, targeting primary and secondary school students, parents, teachers, guidance counsellors and mature learners to demonstrate the impact of an engineering career.

As a means of ensuring greater equality for women in engineering, the campaign would pay particular focus to supporting and encouraging women and girls to enter the profession. According to Engineers Ireland, women represent only 12pc to 15pc of Ireland’s engineering workforce. 

Commenting on Ireland’s future Murphy said: “Almost every major ambition Ireland has eventually becomes an engineering project, but we are not producing enough engineers to realise these ambitions. 

“And without a sufficient supply of engineers, we will have less capacity to build homes, modernise our infrastructure, complete our energy transition, or remain internationally competitive. The shortage of engineers, however, is not inevitable, but action and leadership are required now to build the engineering talent Ireland needs.”

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