Ireland’s building boom seems to be back, massive infrastructure projects like Dublin’s MetroLink have been greenlight and 36,215 new dwellings were completed in 2025, up 27% in three years according to the Central Statistics Office.

In July 2025 the government updated the National Development Plan which committed €275.4 billion, the largest ever investment by the state with the aims of unlocking housing delivery, upgrading water and energy infrastructure and improving roads and public transport.

But who is going to build all of this?

According to the business representative group Ibec, the construction sector has roughly 54,000 fewer employees than at its 2007 peak, and while the construction sector currently employs over 177,600 people, to meet these housing and infrastructure goals set by the government 100,000 additional roles are required by 2030, roughly 25,000 per year.

In Budget 2027, €446 million was provided for apprenticeships, and targets were set for 12,500 new registrations annually.

Apprenticeships can help fix the shortage of workers in construction. They can train the people we need to meet the government’s housing targets and build the big infrastructure projects planned across the country in the next few years.

But where in Ireland is the best for someone to carry out their apprenticeship? We broke it down county by county.

We built the Trade Apprenticeship Index by analysing metrics such as rent prices for a double room in a shared house, distance to nearest technological university campus and CSO datasets which revealed construction activity, construction employment figures and active construction enterprises (potential employers).

Each county was given a score out of 100 for every factor, to reveal the best county for doing a trade apprenticeship. We then averaged the four scores, with each factor weighted equally, to give an overall index score out of 100.

Here’s the full breakdown!

Ireland’s best counties for doing trade apprenticeships

1.  Waterford

Waterford tops the list as the best county for doing a trade apprenticeship, with an overall score of 76.91 out of 100.

In 2022 Waterford IT merged with Carlow IT to form the Southeast Technological University (SETU), Waterford is home to five of the university’s campuses in some of which offsite learning for trade apprenticeships takes place.

The average monthly rent for a double room in a shared house was €614.5 per month, while Waterford had the highest number of new homes commenced per 10,000 people at 99.6 indicating that trade work activity is high in the region.

2. Mayo

Mayo came in second with an index score of 67.85 out of 100. Although the number of new homes commenced in Mayo was over half of that in Waterford, it’s number of active construction enterprises as well as having one of the highest levels of construction employees per ten thousand people nationally helped bolster its position on the Index.

Thanks to Atlantic Technological University’s Castlebar campus, just 0.8 km from the town centre, it had the third-shortest distance from a county town to a TU campus, and its average rent for a room in a shared house was among the 10 lowest in the country at just €604 per month for a double room.

3. Carlow

Carlow ranks third with an Index score of 67.83. Home to SETU’s Carlow campus, it had the fifth lowest distance between a county town and TU campus.

Although Carlow’s average rent of €655 placed it in the upper half of the list, it had one of the highest numbers of construction workers per 10,000 people. On top of that, the Kilkenny and Carlow Education and Training Board region had the highest number of craft trade employers per 10,000 people.

4. Wexford

Wexford ranked in the top 10 nationally for new home commencements, with 60.8 per 10,000 people. Although it had the sixth-highest average rent for a double room (€698 per month for a double room), its closeness to the SETU Wexford campus and its strong number of active construction businesses made it rank in fourth place.

5. Meath

Meath closed out the top 5 slightly behind Wexford with an index score of 67.09. Despite being in the top ten most expensive counties for average room rent prices at €665 per month and its county towns straight line distance being 34.2 km from the nearest TU campus, the county’s new home commencements, construction employees and enterprises per 10,000 people boosted it to the top 5.

It had the second highest rate of new home commencements and the third highest amount of active construction enterprises per 10 thousand people.

Rounding out the top 10

Kerry, Donegal, Tipperary, Galway and Westmeath made up the remainder of the top 10 with index scores of 66.19, 61.78, 58.5, 57.94 and 57.62 respectively.

Each of these counties host a TU campus where on many, phase 4 and 6 off the job training for apprenticeships take place. In 2021 Cork Institute of Technology (IT) and IT Tralee merged to form Munster TU, also that year Limerick IT and Athlone IT merged to form TU Shannon which has multiple campuses in Tipperary and in 2022 Institutions of technology in Galway, Donegal and Mayo merged to create Atlantic TU.

Donegal had second lowest average rent price nationally (€503 per month) only higher than Leitrim, and the highest number of active construction enterprises per 10,000 people. Tipperary had the second shortest distance between its county town and a TU campus.

The capital’s costly catch

Wicklow, Cork, Limerick, Dublin and Monaghan wrapped up the top 15 with index scores of 57.58, 57.55, 56.36, 56.03 and 53.23 apiece.

If we look at the individual figures for Dublin it may seem quite impressive on the surface as it has one of the highest rates of new home commencements per 10 thousand people, however it ranks thirteenth for active construction enterprises per 10 thousand people and unsurprisingly has the most expensive rents nationally pulling its index score lower.

Monaghan stands out as while it has by far the most construction employees per 10 thousand people at 477.7, the fifth lowest average room rent price has the second highest amount of construction enterprises, behind Donegal, it’s relatively low amount of new home commencements and its county towns distance from the nearest TU campus bring its index score down to the fifteenth spot.

What this means for the trades

According an Ibec report from February 2026, the construction industry is facing an unsustainable age gap as a direct result of the post 2008 financial crash. Prior to the crash, 15 to 24-year-olds made up roughly 25% of construction employment. As of February 2026, this figure remained below 15%, while 20% of the current workforce is expected to retire in the next 20 years.

Initiatives and additional funding have been brought forward to try and close this gap, investment in apprenticeship delivery has more than doubled since 2020 while apprenticeship registrations grew by 78% over a similar period.

While the construction labour shortage may be easing slightly, many construction firms still deal with labour shortages, for them the answer isn't just working harder; it's working smarter. Tighter scheduling, less time lost to paperwork, and making sure no job or callout slips through the cracks.

At Fieldmotion, that's exactly what our software is built for. We help field-service teams manage jobs, schedule engineers, send invoices and keep customers happy, all from one place, so trades across Ireland can do more with the people they already have.

Methodology

We analysed all 26 counties in the Republic of Ireland across four factors to find the best county to start a trade apprenticeship: the average monthly rent for a double room in a shared house (Daft.ie Rental Report, Q1 2026), the straight-line distance from each county town to the nearest technological university campus, where apprentices complete their college-based training (campus locations mapped using Google Maps), new homes started per 10,000 people in the 12 months to September 2026 (CSO), and construction employees per 10,000 people (CSO, 2024).

Each county was given a score out of 100 for every metric, to reveal the best county for doing a trade apprenticeship. The four scores were averaged, with each factor weighted equally, to give an overall index score out of 100, and counties were ranked from highest to lowest. Population figures are from the CSO Census 2022.

Sources

https://apprenticeship.ie/craft-apprenticeship-training-locations

https://www.ibec.ie/connect-and-learn/industries/construction-property-and-engineering/property-industry-ireland/reports-and-publications/construction-industry-skills

https://cif.ie/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/CIF-Construction-Outlook-Survey-Q2-2026-220526.pdf

https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/question/2026-07-02/87/