Ireland’s Infrastructure Acceleration
Ireland is entering the most significant infrastructure delivery cycle in its modern history, both in scale and policy commitment. The Government’s National Development Plan (NDP) now represents a €270bn+ multi-year capital investment framework designed to address structural deficits across housing, transport, utilities, energy transition, and social infrastructure.
The revised NDP allocates substantial capital across:
- Housing (€35.96bn)
- Water infrastructure (€12.2bn)
- Energy (€3.5bn)
- Transport (€24.33bn)
- Health (€9.25bn)
- Education (€7.55bn)
Crucially, this is not capital investment without reform. The recommendations emerging from the Accelerating Infrastructure Taskforce signal a coordinated effort to remove systemic delivery bottlenecks across planning, judicial review, procurement, and enhanced public–private coordination.
For Dublin’s corporate finance and infrastructure advisory ecosystem, this marks more than a short-term trend. It represents the beginning of a sustained structural expansion in demand for specialist talent. This decade-long, politically backed investment pipeline will significantly reshape Ireland’s advisory, banking, and financial services landscape, driving sustained demand for project finance, infrastructure advisory, and capital programme expertise.
Delivering investment at this scale will require deep collaboration between the State and private sector, as government bodies increasingly rely on advisory firms, financial institutions, and private capital partners to plan, finance, and execute complex infrastructure programmes effectively.
Below is how the National Development Plan is already influencing hiring trends, and how it will continue to shape Ireland’s professional and financial services sector in the years ahead.
From planning to delivery: a surge in transaction & advisory demand
The recommendations of the Accelerating Infrastructure Taskforce report signal a decisive shift: Ireland is moving rapidly from planning to structured execution.
Proposed measures include:
- A Critical Infrastructure Bill to fast-track nationally significant projects
- Streamlined judicial review processes
- Simplified planning pathways for critical infrastructure
- Stronger cross-agency coordination across utilities and transport bodies
If implemented effectively, these reforms will shorten project timelines and reduce investor and stakeholder uncertainty; two factors that have historically constrained private capital participation.
As projects accelerate, demand will rise sharply for professionals with experience in:
- Capital project financial modelling
- Project finance structuring
- PPP advisory and alternative funding models
- Risk allocation and commercial structuring
- Financial due diligence on infrastructure assets
Corporate finance teams within advisory firms, banks, and infrastructure funds will require deeper technical capability - not just generalist M&A experience, but infrastructure-specific expertise.
Advisory firms in Dublin can expect sustained demand for:
- Project Finance Analysts & Managers
- Infrastructure Financial Modellers
- Commercial & Regulatory Specialists
- Transaction and M&A support professionals
- Capital programme governance experts
International talent will become essential
Ireland’s domestic infrastructure finance talent pool is not yet deep enough to support the scale and pace of delivery envisioned under the NDP. Private advisory firms, infrastructure investors, and specialist consultancies will increasingly need to attract expertise from more mature infrastructure markets, particularly:
- The Middle East (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar), where giga-project financing and PPP structuring are highly advanced
- The UK, with its long-established PFI/PPP advisory ecosystem
- Australia, known for sophisticated project finance and transport infrastructure funding models
- Canada, with strong institutional investor participation in infrastructure
Professionals from these markets often bring:
- Experience closing multi-billion-euro infrastructure transactions
- Deep PPP structuring expertise
- Exposure to complex risk advisory and concession frameworks
- Advanced financial modelling capability across energy, transport, and social infrastructure
What this means for private employers
- Relocation packages and visa sponsorship will become more common
- Hybrid and flexible working models may be leveraged to attract overseas specialists
- Firms able to position Ireland as a long-term, stable infrastructure growth market will gain a competitive advantage in attracting global talent
- Compensation benchmarking will increasingly reflect international market rates rather than purely domestic norms
Long-term capital deployment creates sustained talent demand
The scale and structure of capital allocation under the National Development Plan provide something the Irish advisory market rarely benefits from: long-term visibility.
Unlike cyclical private-sector deal activity, this wave of infrastructure spending is multi-annual, politically backed, and ring-fenced within a national framework. That stability fundamentally changes workforce planning for advisory firms, banks, and infrastructure investors. This is not a short spike in hiring, but a structural expansion.
Long-term capital deployment creates a predictable transaction pipeline across energy, transport, housing, utilities, and social infrastructure, leading to:
- Increased institutional capital participation in Irish infrastructure assets
- Larger and more complex financing structures requiring specialist modelling, due diligence, and risk expertise
- Longer-duration programme mandates rather than one-off advisory engagements
Strategic Hiring Implications
- Firms can justify building permanent infrastructure finance teams rather than relying heavily on contractors
- Sector specialisation (energy transition, transport, housing delivery, water infrastructure) will become a key differentiator
- Debt advisory and project finance capabilities will expand alongside traditional M&A functions
- International investors entering the Irish market will require locally embedded financial expertise
Over the next decade, infrastructure is likely to become one of the most stable and scalable verticals within Ireland’s corporate finance landscape. For employers, the challenge will not be whether demand materialises, but whether they can secure the talent required to service it.
A unique opportunity for candidates
For professionals in corporate finance, infrastructure advisory, project finance, and capital programmes, this represents one of the most compelling career inflection points Ireland has seen in decades.
As funding under the National Development Plan accelerates from allocation to execution, the market will see:
- Increased deal flow across energy, transport, utilities, and social infrastructure
- Larger and more complex project finance structures
- Expanded debt advisory and refinancing activity
- Greater institutional investor participation in Irish infrastructure assets
- Long-term capital programme mandates embedded within State and semi-State bodies
Infrastructure transactions are inherently complex and require multidisciplinary collaboration across legal, regulatory, technical, and financial workstreams. Professionals operating in this space gain:
- Advanced financial modelling and structuring capability
- Experience negotiating risk allocation across public and private stakeholders
- Exposure to multi-billion-euro capital programmes
- Direct interaction with senior decision-makers across government, banking, and investment
Compared with traditional corporate M&A cycles, infrastructure advisory often provides earlier ownership of workstreams and longer-term involvement across asset lifecycles from feasibility through financial close and into operational phases.
Unlike generalist M&A, infrastructure finance is less exposed to short-term economic volatility. State-backed capital programmes create a more stable demand environment, offering greater medium-term job security, clearer progression pathways within specialist teams, and opportunities to build internationally transferable niche expertise.
Professionals who develop infrastructure finance expertise in Ireland over the next decade will also enhance global mobility, given the universal relevance of PPP, project finance, and capital programme delivery models.
Preparing for Ireland's Infrastructure Talent Cycle
Across Dublin, we are already seeing increased competition for project finance specialists, infrastructure advisory professionals, financial modellers, and capital programme experts. Hiring timelines are shortening, international searches are becoming more common, and firms are reassessing how they attract and retain scarce mid-senior talent.
For employers, the key questions are becoming increasingly strategic:
- Do you have the infrastructure capability required for the next phase of delivery?
- Is your hiring strategy aligned with the scale of upcoming national investment?
- Are you positioned to compete for internationally mobile infrastructure talent?
For candidates, this market presents a rare opportunity to step into projects that will shape Ireland’s economic landscape for decades, gaining exposure that traditionally required relocation to larger infrastructure markets abroad.
If you are planning hires within corporate finance, infrastructure advisory, project finance, debt advisory, or capital programmes, I would be happy to share current market insight, salary benchmarking, and talent availability across Dublin and international infrastructure hubs.
Get in touch directly to discuss your firm’s hiring plans or career move - or submit a few short details here, and the relevant consultant will connect with you the same day.
