Jones Engineering is proud to be a Founding Partner of Constructing Equality Ireland, a new industry-led initiative bringing organisations from across Ireland’s built environment sector together to accelerate progress on gender equality.

Facilitated by Business in the Community Ireland (BITCI), the initiative has been established to address the continued underrepresentation of women across the construction and built environment sector. It will bring together organisations to share knowledge, identify common challenges and develop practical, evidence-based actions to improve the attraction, retention and progression of women throughout the industry.

Women currently account for just 10.9% of Ireland’s construction workforce, highlighting both the scale of the challenge and the opportunity for the industry to work collectively to create meaningful change.

Working Together to Create Lasting Change

As a Founding Partner, Jones Engineering will work alongside organisations from across the sector to help identify barriers to greater female participation and contribute to solutions that can be implemented across businesses of different sizes and disciplines.

The initiative will initially focus on a series of industry roundtables exploring key areas including early-career recruitment and the retention of women within construction.

The first roundtable will take place on 6 October 2026, focusing on attracting more women into the industry through early-career recruitment pathways.

Insights and recommendations from the roundtables will ultimately inform the development of an industry-wide Gender Equality Action Plan, providing practical and scalable actions that organisations across the built environment sector can adopt.

Building a Diverse, Future-Ready Workforce

For Jones Engineering, becoming a Founding Partner of Constructing Equality Ireland builds on our continued commitment to encouraging more women to consider careers in engineering, construction and STEM, while creating opportunities for people to develop and progress throughout their careers.

Carmel Walsh, Chief People Officer at Jones Engineering, said:
“Jones Engineering is proud to announce this partnership which deepens our commitment to encourage women in STEM careers and actively building a diverse, future-ready workforce our industry needs.”

Constructing Equality Ireland is supported by the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) and Women in Construction Ireland (WICI), who join the Founding Partners on the initiative’s Steering Group.

The Founding Partners are AstraZeneca, Bord Gáis Energy, Jones Engineering, Turner & Townsend, Walls Construction, John Paul Construction, John Sisk & Son, Designer Group, Dornan Engineering, and Kirby Group Engineering.

Participation in the upcoming industry roundtables will be open to organisations of all sizes across the built environment sector, providing an opportunity for contractors, consultants, clients, developers, supply chain partners and other industry stakeholders to contribute to the development of the Gender Equality Action Plan.

Read the full announcement and learn more about Constructing Equality Ireland on the Business in the Community Ireland website – https://bitc.ie/irelands-built-environment-joins-forces-to-accelerate-gender-equality/