several major infrastructure projects happening across the country at once<\/a>, including the Greater Dublin Drainage Project and Luas Cork, and not enough workers to go around.<\/p>\nSeveral thousand workers are needed to tunnel through the ground and lay bricks for the proposed stops. MetroLink is also speaking to firms across Europe to source engineers and other specialised staff.<\/p>\n
Wednesday\u2019s summit in Croke Park heard how the construction labour force currently stands at 190,000, but that it needs to add another 100,000 people to ensure the government\u2019s wider infrastructure plans can be met.<\/p>\n
![\"IMG_7365\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790470571_853_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Michael Prenty, a director at Dublin-based Ballymore Group, was firmly of the belief that the construction sector will be able to meet the demands for MetroLink.<\/p>\n
The company is responsible for multiple large-scale developments across the Dublin Docklands and regeneration projects in London.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere aren\u2019t 100,000 people waiting, sitting on the sidelines and waiting to start work in the morning. But the industry is flexible,\u201d Prenty told The Journal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe built 90,000 houses at the peak the last time and we can do it again. It\u2019s like a lot of things \u2013 you plan it, put it there, and we\u2019ll deal with it, the industry will take it from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was echoed by Andrew Brownlee, chief executive of the CIF, who pointed out how the sector added 20,000 extra workers this year already to put its total nationwide workforce at 190,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe industry flexes up when large projects are guaranteed in the pipeline,\u201d Brownlee told The Journal.<\/p>\n
Brownlee, who previously headed up state skills body Solas before joining the CIF, added that the industry does need to make the sector \u201cmore attractive\u201d as a career option to keep headcounts rising steadily.<\/p>\n
![\"m50_bridge1920x1080\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790470571_122_.png\")
\n Concept art of MetroLink passing over the M50 MetroLink<\/p>\n
MetroLink\n<\/p>\n
Prenty, of Ballymore Group, told us that the company had not invested in land along the MetroLink stops because they \u201ccouldn\u2019t see it happening\u201d.<\/p>\n
But he added that the plans are a huge \u201cgame changer\u201d as he urged the government to \u201cgo for it\u201d and get it built.<\/p>\n
Prenty, who is the chairman of the Irish Home Builders Association (IHBA), said the industry is reliant on MetroLink taking off to ensure further housing can be built in north Dublin.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the basic level, when you apply for planning for 500 houses, the neighbouring estate says, \u2018Well, we can\u2019t get out onto the road now. What happens if you put another 500 on there? We\u2019ll never get out.\u2019 All of a sudden you have a whole army of people against you.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s for this reason, Prenty explained, that the industry wants to see MetroLink, as well as Dart West to Maynooth and Bus Connects, go ahead. He believes all would help reduce congestion on the M50.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople won\u2019t be as upset when planning goes in their area and they can see the transport is there, but it won\u2019t happen if there\u2019s no capacity and there\u2019s no public transport,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Early stage works are due to start on MetroLink next year, with groundworks flagged to begin in 2028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IRELAND\u2019S AMBITIOUS METROLINK project took one step forward last week when it got the green light from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[268935,38325,37992,270699,61,60,270700,29093,43,2738],"class_list":["post-637155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-building-summit","tag-cif","tag-construction-industry-federation","tag-hype-train","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-long-planned","tag-metrolink","tag-news","tag-transport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"IMG_7695\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790470570_656_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n