A recent SCSI report found that a 4% per annum rise in the economy would create a shortage of almost 1,100 chartered surveyors by 2026.

Mr McGuane says SCSI will continue to engage with universities to ensure courses meet industry needs and address skills shortages, notably the skills to help construction deliver on key sustainability targets.

Along with his SCSI presidency, Mr McGuane is also the asset management lead for the Land Development Agency. With the LDA, he leads on cost-rental housing as well as land and site management.

One of the key projects he is working on is Project Tosaigh, which will see the LDA purchase 5,000 homes to be made available as cost-rental or affordable-to-purchase homes.

Mr McGuane has a dual status as both a property and facility management surveyor as well as a planning and development surveyor. He says that he sees inflation and rising interest rates as the other big challenges facing the country and the construction, property and land sectors.

How can SCSI help ensure Ireland has the skilled chartered surveyors it will need in the coming years?

“Currently, the SCSI accredits 28 courses in eight partner universities across Ireland, and these provide an essential talent pipeline for the property, land and construction professions. However, demand is outstripping even this growing supply of skilled graduates. Therefore, the SCSI is very involved in developing new routes into the profession, with an emphasis on an ‘earn while you learn’ approach.

“For example, we will launch an Advanced Quantity Surveyor apprenticeship soon. This is just the first of many apprenticeship programmes being developed which will increase the number of skilled professionals and attract a more diverse cohort of professionals to address the industry’s challenges in new ways. Similarly, we are also partnering with ATU Sligo to deliver part-time courses in property, facility management, and mechanical and electrical quantity surveying.

“Again, if we look at new approaches to education and where our pipeline could come from, we can tap into those with industry experience who didn’t have professional education opportunities previously via flexible learning. Our role in building the relationship between industry and academia has been vital to these changes.” 

How can leaders in construction and related industries impact positive change in Ireland’s challenges around sustainability?

“Firstly, we need to start to share our understanding of what is a complex legislative and evolving space, the SCSIs Surveyors Declare – Sustainability Resource Guides is an excellent place to start as it provides a concise summary of the legislation. It also includes a guide to the terminology, building certifications, and educational resources relating to sustainability in the built environment. Obviously, the built environment, both from a construction and an operations perspective, significantly contributes to our carbon footprint.

“The SCSI has recently produced an excellent report exploring the challenges of reusing buildings – The Real Cost of Renovation Report. But we also need to establish what success looks like in terms of commercial and residential property operation.

“We have certifications in place when these buildings are commissioned and some of the highest standards in the EU. But do they perform to these standards post-commissioning? How do we capture that information to develop benchmark standards and how do we improve the performance of the building? Also, how do we educate occupants and influence their behaviour to bring down operational carbon?

“In my role with the LDA, where we will be stabilising and holding cost-rental units for a long-term hold, we are looking at how we can set standards and make an impact in these areas. From a broader construction industry perspective these are critical issues which are going to impact on valuations and on financing options for new and existing stock.

“One of the key requirements for our academic partners when securing accreditation is to demonstrate and provide evidence that course material maps against SCSI’s sustainability competency.

“For professionals, SCSI has recently introduced a new CPD Framework, recommending that all chartered surveyors undertake annual CPD concerning sustainability. This will become a compulsory requirement next year.

“As a profession, it is important to look to the future with modular construction or operational data analysis and consider how roles might change to include sustainability practitioners.

“New course elements are being developed on a regular basis across the different surveying disciplines. For example, TU Dublin's MSc in Quantity Surveying now has modules on Construction and Sustainable Technologies and Sustainable Construction and Lifecycle Analysis.” 

Through your SCSI and LDA roles, do you believe you can you influence progress with skills shortages and sustainability goals while also playing a part in tackling housing shortages?

“I’ve seen real change happening across the sector, but now is the time to keep moving forward, to address the skills challenges and realise our sustainability goals. As SCSI president, I can see first-hand the organisation’s pivotal public interest role in providing stakeholders with high-quality, data-driven analysis and cross-sector market reports. Political parties and stakeholders of all hues will very often have opposing views, but all rely on SCSI reports to inform their policy decisions. Producing these independent reports is a responsibility the SCSI takes very seriously.

“As the asset management lead at the LDA, my role includes the management of our cost rental portfolio and the asset management of our sites and land. The recently launched report on relevant public land was the first of its kind and is designed to serve as a strategic and ongoing process to assess the potential of underutilised State-owned lands. The objective, of course, is to generate a pipeline of potential sites for affordable housing.

“This first report identifies 83 parcels of land and assesses them as having the potential to deliver up to 67,000 new affordable homes over the medium to long term. In light of this report, the land portfolio that could come our way is very large and has huge potential, but we are at a very early stage of that process.

“The LDA has been tasked with delivering 5,000 homes under Project Tosaigh. These are in addition to homes built on State lands, which was the LDA’s original remit. The aspiration is that the LDA will play a leading role in supporting the broader property sector in delivering affordable homes and choice for both rental and purchase within sustainable communities.” 

Enda McGuane is a former officer in the Defence Forces; he took part in deployments to Lebanon and East Timor. He was first introduced to surveying as part of an artillery training course.

Following his time in the Defence Forces, he worked in a variety of property-related public and private sector roles. He spent the last ten years running a wide-ranging property management business in Galway. He has held several senior roles with the SCSI, including chair of the West/Northwest regional committee.