THE GOVERNMENT NEEDS to find around 70,000 extra people in a variety of construction-related roles to fulfil Ireland’s housing targets.

To bridge this shortfall, it is asking Irish construction workers the world over to return and “Build Back Home”.

Adverts, both in English and as Gaeilge, have been targeted at social media users in Australia since the campaign was revamped last week.

Targeted ads from the Irish government.

Will they match Sydney salaries? 11 per cent super? Find them affordable rentals? pic.twitter.com/ploKqgqX8e

— Brianna Parkins (@parkinsbrea) October 16, 2025

Last February, Tánaiste Simon Harris revealed the government would roll out a campaign aimed at workers in far-flung regions to come home to construction roles in Ireland.

He said the campaign would reach out to people in cities such as New York and Sydney.

“We want to send a message to the Irish people who may have left because there weren’t jobs in construction in the past, that Ireland is a very different place now,” Harris remarked last year as he announced the campaign.

“Ireland needs you to come home, Ireland needs you to help us build homes. We need your help.

“There’s huge opportunities here in Ireland and so please consider coming home and helping out.”

When he announced the campaign last February, the government estimated that it needed 50,000 extra people in construction-related roles over the next decade to keep up with housing demand.

That estimate has since been bumped up to 70,000 between now and 2030.

The campaign has been rolled out by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

It launched last October but was revamped last week.

A Department spokesperson said the campaign aims to “dispel many of the myths around the barriers to moving back home”.

The Department carried out market research in the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia with Irish construction workers to understand their motivations for leaving and the barriers to returning home.

The spokesperson said the research found that after two years abroad, life can become “difficult” and visas are “hard to renew”, while it is ”as hard to buy and rent in major cities as it is in Ireland”. 

The research also found that people working abroad are ”afraid their overseas experience will not be valued and that too much red tape will make life admin difficult”.

“You build the world. Now come and build back home,” reads the website that accompanies the new campaign.

The campaign page on the government website states that Ireland “needs people with construction skills and experience to help deliver on ambitious targets for new housing and infrastructure”.

It adds that there are “lots of opportunities for Irish construction workers who have moved abroad and are considering returning”.

The webpage also features information and advice available to help people “quickly settle back into life in Ireland”, such as a careers portal, links to upskilling and reskilling courses and information from the Revenue Commissioners on returning home.

The webpage also features interviews with people who have already returned home.

Billy McGregor, a site engineer who recently moved back to Dublin after five years in Vancouver, remarked that “it was just time to come home” and he wanted to settle down and have a family.

“I was a bit nervous coming back, but it’s been a lot easier than I thought it was going to be,” said McGregor.

He said the “culture” is the biggest difference between Ireland and Canada and that “you’ve got a lot more laughs on site” here.

Stone mason Cian Lanigan also recently returned home from Canada after nine years.

He also said he was thinking of starting a family and wanted to return home as a result.

Lanigan said the best thing about being home is “being close to family and friends” and that he has a “better appreciation” for Ireland after his time away.