CIF Top 50 Contractors 2025 – A mighty synergy of heritage and capability
The publication of our annual CIF Top 50 Contractors list is always a proud moment for Ireland’s construction industry. It’s a time to recognise and celebrate the companies driving progress, building communities, and creating jobs across the country.
But this year’s list carries added significance as we mark the 90th anniversary of the Construction Industry Federation (CIF), one of Ireland’s longest-standing membership organisations.
What makes this milestone even more meaningful is the extraordinary legacy of the companies featured in this year’s Top 50. Many of them have been part of Ireland’s industrial fabric for generations.
John Sisk & Son was founded in 1859, Collen Construction dates back to 1810, Bennett Construction to 1917, and Duggan Brothers to 1923, and the list goes on. Their resilience, longevity, and ability to grow and adapt through countless challenges and economic phases highlights the strength, skill, and enduring spirit of the sector.
Irish construction companies are committed to building the homes, schools, hospitals, and infrastructure our communities need. We face the challenge of turning our drive into delivery, as regulatory, economic, and logistical roadblocks slow progress. But if history teaches us anything, it’s that this industry knows how to devise solutions and deliver results.
The determination, heritage, and capability reflected in the 2025 Top 50 Contractors list are proof of that. Ireland’s housing crisis has reached a critical juncture. What happens next will define our ability to respond effectively and sustainably.
The country stands at a crossroads where action can no longer be delayed. Post recession house building increased from 8,000 units to over 32,000 by 2023. But in 2024, 30,330 houses were recorded, a 6.7 per cent decrease on the previous year and a 24.1 per cent drop in apartments.
Housing supply is decreasing, while demand for houses is greater than ever. This is despite the concerted efforts of home builders to increase housing availability.
The housing shortfall is driven by multiple constraints, including limited access to capital, inadequate infrastructure, particularly water and electricity, inefficiencies in the planning system, and a shortage of land zoned for residential development.
Delays in infrastructure connections, alongside complex planning and legal processes, have stalled thousands of homes. Additionally, the retrenchment of international funds that were previously purchasing apartment blocks has further disrupted supply.
Zoning restrictions and expired local area plans continue to constrain development, limiting the availability of land for new housing. The housing crisis demands more than incremental change.
We need fresh ideas, transformative solutions, firm leadership and a step change in how we deliver homes. CIF and our constituent member body, Irish Home Builders Association, recently contributed our submission to the National Housing Plan (2025-2030).
Our submission set out proposals to expedite housing delivery with interventions around planning, financial enablers, infrastructure delivery, modern methods of construction and improving public procurement.
For example, restrictions on zoned land, such as tiered zoning and settlement caps, prevent muchneeded developments. Fast-tracking amendments to local development plans and using emergency planning powers for infrastructural projects will enable more housing units to come to the market more quickly.
Planning permissions should be extended before they expire to allow extension based on economic, technical or commercial grounds. And we recommend rewarding local authorities that meet or exceed housing targets with access to dedicated infrastructure and community funding grands.
We hope that the newly established Strategic Housing Activation Office will play a pivotal role in advancing housing delivery, driving meaningful change, and turning key proposals into action. We are optimistic about the potential for collaboration and strongly recommend that the office include representation from home builders, alongside planners, utility providers, and government stakeholders.
Alongside the importance of driving delivery with urgency, it is essential to ensure that the industry’s existing labour capacity and expertise are fully supported and mobilised to meet housing and infrastructure ambitions. This continues to be a focus of extensive discussion and analysis.
Attracting skilled labour is a shared issue across all sectors in Ireland’s competitive job market. Construction is a large and complex industry made up of diverse and specialised labour markets.
The industry encompasses everything from domestic retrofits to large-scale infrastructure projects, making any attempt to summarise its labour needs into one number is overly simplistic. Despite its capacity, the industry is hindered by delays and uncertainty, especially in National Development Plan (NDP) projects.
These disruptions are forcing large Irish contractors to redirect skilled workers and resources to commercial or international markets where investment is more predictable. A report by Turner and Townsend revealed that the industry operated at just 80 per cent capacity last year, while a CIF Construction Outlook report in August 2024 highlighted that 69 per cent of construction firms are engaged in little to no public work.
Key barriers to participation in public projects include excessive bureaucracy, low profit margins, a preference for awarding contracts based on lowest cost rather than quality, and persistent planning and legal delays.
The construction sector workforce grew by 18 per cent between 2020 and 2023 despite the impact of covid on output.
Without reforms to streamline planning processes, unlock serviced and zoned land, and commit to multi-annual infrastructure funding, Ireland risks losing its construction capacity to more attractive international markets.
The government’s heavy reliance on a fraction of the industry to deliver under the NDP further exposes this vulnerability. Construction firms remain ready and capable, but urgent action is needed to provide the certainty required to scale up.
As we mark Ireland’s Top 50 Contractors in this special edition of Construction, it’s clear that our members have the capability, commitment, and vision to deliver lasting solutions. By working in genuine partnership with government, Ireland’s top contractors are not just ready to build, they’re ready to unlock the full potential of our industry, open new pathways to delivery, and transform housing and infrastructure into engines of national progress.
