Motorways, Metrolink & More: Eamon Daly, Director at Egis (member-only)

In this episode of AMPLIFIED, Dusty Rhodes is joined by Eamon Daly, Director at Egis Engineering Ireland, to explore the realities of delivering Ireland’s most vital infrastructure. From motorways and tunnels to Luas extensions and the future of MetroLink, Eamon shares stories from over 27 years in engineering. He explains the challenges of balancing deadlines, budgets, sustainability, and resources — while also highlighting the career opportunities for the next generation of engineers. Packed with insights on leadership, mentorship, and the future of transport in Ireland, this conversation offers a rare inside look at how critical national projects are brought to life.

THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT
● How major road and transport projects in Ireland are planned, designed, and delivered
● Lessons from major infrastructure builds — Dublin Tunnel, Jack Lynch Tunnel, Luas, and MetroLink.
● Overcoming geotechnical challenges: peat, karst, and precision bridge engineering.
● Balancing deadlines, budgets, and sustainability on mega-projects.
● The evolving planning system and how it affects delivery timelines.
● Resource challenges — why Ireland needs more engineers and international expertise.
● The value of mentorship, varied experience, and networking for career growth.
● Future-proofing skills: opportunities in transport, rail, and sustainable infrastructure.

GUEST DETAILS
Eamon Daly is a Director at Egis in Ireland and Barry Transportation - now Egis. Eamon has over 25 years' experience, specialising in Transportation and Traffic Engineering. Notable projects he has completed work on include Luas Finglas, N22 Baile Bhuirne to Macroom and N4 Collooney to Castlebaldwin.

In this episode of AMPLIFIED, Dusty Rhodes is joined by Eamon Daly, Director at Egis Engineering Ireland, to explore the realities of delivering Ireland’s most vital infrastructure. From motorways and tunnels to Luas extensions and the future of MetroLink, Eamon shares stories from over 27 years in engineering. He explains the challenges of balancing deadlines, budgets, sustainability, and resources — while also highlighting the career opportunities for the next generation of engineers. Packed with insights on leadership, mentorship, and the future of transport in Ireland, this conversation offers a rare inside look at how critical national projects are brought to life.

THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT

● How major road and transport projects in Ireland are planned, designed, and delivered
● Lessons from major infrastructure builds — Dublin Tunnel, Jack Lynch Tunnel, Luas, and MetroLink.
● Overcoming geotechnical challenges: peat, karst, and precision bridge engineering.
● Balancing deadlines, budgets, and sustainability on mega-projects.
● The evolving planning system and how it affects delivery timelines.
● Resource challenges — why Ireland needs more engineers and international expertise.
● The value of mentorship, varied experience, and networking for career growth.
● Future-proofing skills: opportunities in transport, rail, and sustainable infrastructure.

MORE INFORMATION
Looking for ways to explore or advance a career in the field of engineering? Visit Engineers Ireland to learn more about the many programs and resources on offer. https://www.engineersireland.ie/

Engineers Journal AMPLIFIED is produced by DustPod.io for Engineers Ireland.

QUOTES

"Sustainability needs to come into all projects – it’s business as usual now" - Eamon Daly
"Good mentorship is vital. You’re going to make mistakes, but there’s always a solution and it’s never as bad as you think" - Eamon Daly
"Ireland has great projects and mega projects ahead – it’s a fantastic time to be a young engineer" - Eamon Daly
"Networking outside your organisation is always useful – we’re constantly talking to consultants, contractors and clients to see what’s coming next" - Eamon Daly
"I’ve always stayed involved in design because it’s something I really enjoy – even while leading and managing teams" - Eamon Daly
"As a capital city, Dublin needs a rail link into the city centre. MetroLink is about way more than just the airport – it’s part of an integrated transport system" - Eamon Daly

KEYWORDS
#Engineering #Infrastructure #Ireland #Transport #Sustainability #CivilEngineering #MetroLink #Luas #Motorways #Tunnels #Egis #EngineersIreland #CareerInEngineering #FutureOfTransport

TRANSCRIPTION

For your convenience, we include an automated AI transcription

Dusty Rhodes 00:02
Hi there. My name is Dusty Rhodes, and you're welcome to AMPLIFIED, The Engineers Journal podcast.

Eamon Daly 00:07
We certainly need a rail link into our city centre. That's a given for me. Metrolink, it's way more than just one link from the airport into the city centre. It's part of an integrated public transport system.

Dusty Rhodes 00:26
Delivering world class infrastructure while driving Ireland's journey towards a sustainable future. Sounds ideal, but ultimately it's a major balancing act. We're about to get the inside story on what it takes to set up and manage vital national assets, including over 1200 kilometres of motorways across the country. Joining us to fill us in is a leading expert with over 27 years of experience in the field as a director at Aegis. He's at the very heart of transforming our critical national infrastructure. It's a pleasure to welcome Eamon Daly.

Eamon Daly 00:59
Hi, Dusty. It's great to be here.

Dusty Rhodes 01:01
So listen, Eamon, tell me what got you into this fantastic industry we have called engineering.

Eamon Daly 01:07
Well, as a secondary student in St Keirans College in Kilkenny, I wasn't sure what career path I wanted, so I was stronger at maths and science subjects and things that involved problem solving, which I found, you know, throughout my career is what engineering design is largely about. So I decided to put engineering down into CEO farms. I was lucky enough to study Civil Engineering in UCD, graduating in 1995 with a degree and a master's in transportation engineering in 1996.

Dusty Rhodes 01:36
And what was your very first gig?

Eamon Daly 01:38
So I started working in Kilkenny county council as a graduate engineer in the road design office under the guidance of Oliver Manion. He was a Senior Executive Engineer at the time in the County County Council. I worked on some projects such as Callan bypass and other local projects in Kilkenny, and I stayed there for probably about two years, and then I moved on to Fingal County Council, where I worked on the design of the M1 northern motorway between the airport and Balbriggan, which I think was the last major road scheme to be detailed, designed within a local authority. And it was probably the last major scheme that was an employer detail design contract, because going forward, major schemes were all either designer, builder, PPP type contracts. And in Fingal county council, I had a great mentor in Fingal county council, in John Fitzsimons, who went on and to have a very successful career in transport infrastructure Ireland. So I joined JB Barry and partners in 1999 and this was at the start again, as I said, of the major inter urban road building program in Ireland. So historically, JB Barry and partners were a water, wastewater and civil consultancy business, but with the publication of this national road needs study and the national development plan to set out to build dual carriageways and motorways around the country, JB Barry and partners, under the guidance of Liam Prendeville And Niall McDermott, set up a transportation division. And, you know, I joined them at that point, right at the start, which I felt was a really good opportunity to get involved and to grow and have good opportunities within that company to grow. And I stayed there for about four years that I worked on some really good, great projects such as the N7 Naas road, the M3 Navan to Dunshaughlin and M11 Rathnew to Arklow and the M8 Cashel to Mitchellstown. So they're all big projects, with a lot of projects being built and brought through planning at that time,

Dusty Rhodes 03:36
I do remember that M3 right out to Dunshaughlin. I did drive through that for maybe four years. It's funny how decades later you beat the man who was a who was behind it. But I'll give you this. I love that road now. I absolutely love it anyway. Let's continue on.

Eamon Daly 03:53
I left JB Barry's for in 2003 I moved to the west of Ireland, so my girlfriend at the time is a mayo woman, and she's now my wife, but we settled in Westport, and I took up a job with with Cobalt Consulting Engineers based out of Castlebar office. And I stayed with them for four years and worked on some good projects there to the N7 Nenagh project, and I worked on the gas terminal Bell and a boy, but in 2007 I got an opportunity to rejoin JB Barry's and open up their Castlebar office. So the west of Ireland office, and we started with a project called the N 17 Tuam to Claremorris. That wasn't a great time to start up an office, because 2007 was coming into recession, but we had a small crew here for every four or five people, and we managed it through a few years. And, you know, as we came out with recession down, we started to grow the office and where, I suppose we're here to this day,

Dusty Rhodes 04:53
It's interesting, though, for anybody who is in engineering, and you're working on all these amazing projects, and then all of a sudden. It's like, oh, hang on, I'm now in charge of the regional office. I've now got people who are working for me. It's a completely different skill set to actually doing engineering. How did you handle that transition from a technical engineering role to being a leader?

Eamon Daly 05:14
Well, I think the transition was quite easy for me, because we started off with a small number of the office, and it grew from there. And look, even though I'm I'm leading people and and, you know, managing people like I've always stayed involved in the engineering design and the detail of projects. It's something I really enjoy

Dusty Rhodes 05:34
I want to get into the meat and potatoes and some of the projects that you've mentioned that you have worked on. And, of course, now today, we've got Aegis, who are working on the Dublin tunnel. Jack Lynch tunnel is under their preview. The purview is another word, Lewis as well, which I believe you're directly involved with. But let's go back to Galway and the end 17, you were involved in the new road there from Gort to toe, and a ton of problems that presented you, I believe, as well.

Eamon Daly 06:02
Yeah, the N17 is a motorway scheme from the south of Galway up to to in the order about 60 kilometres long. And we were designed that in a giant venture with Arab so the contractor was a company, a PPP company, called direct route. And the contractors were Robert Sisk and Lagan. So we designed a northern half of the scheme, approximately 30 kilometres of motorway. But there were some significant challenges on that project, soft ground, so there was, there was a significant depth of peat, and that was underlined by Mars. It was soft ground up to, you know, 3014, 15 meters depth. So particularly, you might dig out the soft ground or a case it, but it wasn't, it wasn't an option with that depth. And then there was a constraint that the road had to be built by a certain time. So you can search our soft ground, but it takes a long time to settle and compact. So we came up with a solution of about two climbs of the road where we put in these circular band drains and compacted the ground quicker. Um, but look, it was, it was, it was a challenge at the time, but it's worked out really well. Another, I suppose, another thing on that project was karst as well. Here is, is for the limestone and karst rock. So we came up with a protocol to identify cars in the area. And we did come across some significant cars features, and we had to develop solutions for those, geotechnical solutions for those so it was, it was a really good project.

Dusty Rhodes 07:32
Can you give me an example of one of the solutions?

Eamon Daly 07:35
Yeah, I can. And in some cases, there were just standard details where we fill this the car treat. It was small enough in one particular solution. It was, it was quite a large hole in the ground for the simple terms, and it was near, near a bridge structure. So we actually ended up building a structure, a concrete structure, above the hole, and span the hole with foundations either side of it. So it was like a structure on a structure.

Dusty Rhodes 08:01
And was this kind of around the time where you had taken over, you were in charge of the regional office, and this was you, for the first time.

Eamon Daly 08:10
Well, it was, it was probably, it was probably a few years later, but, like, I suppose, why we have a regional office? We use our offices around the country with different people in different people in different offices, and we've different specialists and different plates. And they all, they all take part in the design, and are all part of the team.

Dusty Rhodes 08:28
That's that's good also. Now it wasn't just around the goal. You're also involved in the the N22 around the Macroom.

Eamon Daly 08:37
Yeah. So that part more recent, in the last two or three years. It's a project down in County Cork, I suppose, 22 kilometres of motorway. There was a significant number of bridges on that project, and it was well over 40 bridges and a lot of other smaller structures as well. And look, there was a lot of challenges to that project. The topography was was difficult down there, there was some large River bridges. In fact, there was, I suppose, two. Two in particular is the bow Hill River Bridge, which was 120 metre two span steel bridge. And it was a lot of constraints around the site. There was high voltage lines and poor ground conditions. So we came up with this innovative solution to push launch to bridge rather than lift the beams in place. And I think it's the, it's, I'm almost certain it's the largest one of its, of its, of its kind, in Ireland.

Dusty Rhodes 09:32
So tell me more how the push launch works.

Eamon Daly 09:36
So the push launch basically, you set up a structure beside it, basically, and you put you in simple terms, you just push the bridge in from one side over to the other. But it has to be quite precise, because it has to land on, on, on intermediate beam, intermediate beams along the way.

Dusty Rhodes 09:53
So the picture in my head, strange enough, is of ER at the TV show, and they're in the operation theatre, and they've got the big fat man. On a gurney that they brought in. They're pushing him onto the operating table. Is that what you did with the bridge?

Eamon Daly 10:04
Well, we push it in, but it's it gets very precise. Well, it is precise. It has to land on it, on intermediate peers. It has to push to the far side and land in the right sedation at the right at the right level.

Dusty Rhodes 10:18
Do you ever worry about the precision of that? Because, I mean, quite often you have to be just within millimetres, or bang on it.

Eamon Daly 10:25
Yeah, it's within millimetres. But no, look, it's measured all the time and surveyed all the time, and there's great technology

Dusty Rhodes 10:32
For at the moment, is there any particular challenge when you're doing getting things together and getting them merged up perfectly with a two span bridge, as opposed to a regular bridge.

Eamon Daly 10:44
Well, look, yeah, well, generally, generally, where we have a two span bridge, we're lifting in beams or cranes, so it's not as difficult. But with a push launch, we're pushing it from one side to the other. It is more challenging because you have to push it across through, through the intermediate piers to land on the far side on the end here, but went out to far side.

Dusty Rhodes 11:04
And where did the bridges come from?

Eamon Daly 11:07
So the bridges came from Spain. So the steel came from Spain, from Seville, actually. So they were brought up by by shift from Seville into Cork and transfer up, you know, by road, by road, yeah, and they are huge, like the depth of the beams are, I think there were 3.75 meters in depth. So you can imagine there two are huge.

Dusty Rhodes 11:30
So this is essentially the bridge is a it's a two lane road, and you're transporting it on a two lane road. Yes. How does that work?

Eamon Daly 11:40
Well, again, we your specialists, specialists transporters, who do that. And if the special equipment, and they do it overnight time and flood roads with escorts.

Dusty Rhodes 11:52
There was another bridge who you were working on the the N22 and it was, it was a bit of a record breaker as well, I believe.

Eamon Daly 11:57
Yeah. So there was, there was, there was two large, single span this time, River bridges, Belani and the Slan bridges. And, you know, initially, when we looked at those bridges, there were going to be steel bridges, but, but we developed a concrete bridge designed for those, and they were the longest single span concrete bridges constructed in Ireland at the time, I think SLR and there were, I think it was 49.9 meters long. Was the longest spa. So we didn't quite get to 50 meters, but close enough.

Dusty Rhodes 12:31
At what stage of the project did you go? We're not going steel, we're going concrete.

Eamon Daly 12:34
So again, we looked at it. We would have been involved in the tender design for the conscious of design and build. So we design for a contractor. So we do a tender design, and then we move on to, if they're successful with a tender design, we do a detailed design for them. So initially, we would have looked at the tender design stage to see if there was efficiencies, and, you know, economies of scale, to try and come up with a solution that might, might value engineer to value engineer to bridge for the contractor, basically to make it, to give them no maybe additive advantage grant.

Dusty Rhodes 13:10
So was it more a financial decision than it was a construction decision?

Eamon Daly 13:15
I look at it's a bit of both as well, like, you know, and there's, there's a different cost to steal as well. No, great. So there were areas, and there's a there's a construction element to it as well.

Dusty Rhodes 13:28
And did you ever have kind of a situation where you know you want to go one particular direction, or, even worse, you want to go one particular direction with something new, all right? And then you've got that balance of, well, we need to do it this way. And then there's the finance and everything. How do you get your idea across the line with a customer?

Eamon Daly 13:49
When we're working on design builds with big contractors, they certainly have opinions, and we have, we have also have a set of what's called works requirements that we have to comply with as well, so the employer or the client, the client would have a set of works crimes. So we've got to comply with that, and then within that, within that, we will talk to the contractor. We will value engineer solutions that will optimise the design for them.

Dusty Rhodes 14:15
We've been talking about Galway. We've been talking about cork. Let's keep on the west side of the country and the independent republic of Donegal. Have you done any work up that neck of the woods?

Eamon Daly 14:26
Yeah. So, so we're currently, we've done quite a bit of work up in Donegal over the years, but we're currently working on a significant project up in Donegal called the Donegal 10 t project. So that involve, you know, three sections of the national primary network. In Donegal. There's a section that bypasses Bally buffet, there's a section that bypasses letter Kenny, includes a new bridge over the sweaty river. And then there's a section that from Letterkenny down to Lifford again, which shines the a five in Northern Ireland. And eventually it's into in the Republic again. So that's a large project. It's a multimodal project. So it's not only a road project. It includes active travel and kind of parking share sites that allow, for, you know, transfer onto to the active travel, and for, you know, parking and bus pickups and things like that. So it's a significant project up in the north, in the north west. And Donegal is probably an area that has had, you know, maybe a lack of investment over the years. And, you know, I suppose it's peripheral to Ireland, really, and even more so with Brexit, you know, it's probably more peripheral. There's no rail lines either, and no railway in Donegal at all. So they are very much reliant, reliant on road and road infrastructure.

Dusty Rhodes 15:49
But the railway is more to do with the terrain, isn't it, than funding in Donegal?

Eamon Daly 15:54
I wouldn't think so. Historically, there's been a lot of railway networks, but they're all abandoned, disused at the moment.

Dusty Rhodes 16:03
Do you think there is an idea in the back of your head there, kind of, let's get those rail lines working again?

Eamon Daly 16:09
Well, there is, I think there's recent studies. There's an all Ireland rail study, which does talk about linking Derry down to letter county with a rail line.

Dusty Rhodes 16:17
It will be good. And it's been done before, where previously abandoned rail lines have been brought back to life, to great effect. I'd like to ask you about just the management of motorways and roadways, because you're very involved in that side of things. And now Jamie Barry is now known as Aegis Ireland, and they are a multinational, big company. What kind of global experience. Are they bringing to you, from managing motorways across Europe and roads across Europe to managing roads in Ireland? What are they bringing to the game?

Eamon Daly 16:49
Yeah, I suppose back in I suppose 2018 or 2019 and as a company in JB, Barry's, suppose we're always looking what's happening next, and we could see that there was going to be a push into into public transport, and it was going to be a lot of investment in rail and light rail. And we didn't have that experience at the time, so we did a bit of looking around, a bit of digging. And eaters are a company that kind of kept coming to us today. They're operating in the Irish market since about 1994 I think. But as you said, in the operation side of things. So they manage Dublin tunnel and Jack Lange tunnel and some of the more ways around Ireland. But they also have strong rail capabilities internationally. They had a small Irish rail team actually in Ireland at the time, so we brought them on board for a TII framework, and very soon afterwards, actually, we won a contract to bring the Lewis fingerless project through from option selection through to planning stages. So that was kind of our first project. We grew our relationship with them since then, and obviously we've come, we've come part of the these group fairly recently. So you go back to your question, yeah, they have strong operational capability. Manager said that the jack Lance and Durban tunnel, and they're involved in motorway mains, said they operate part of the motorways around Ireland.

Dusty Rhodes 18:23
Have you had an opportunity to look at stuff that they've done abroad on a bigger scale that you just kind of went in your head? Good, god, that's amazing.

Eamon Daly 18:33
Obviously, I'm aware of some of the projects they're involved in. You know, for example, the Paris Metro, and they're doing a lot of work on Paris Metro, on extending those lines, which is, I suppose, but is in a good position looking at at the development of Metro link in Ireland, where we've got real benefit at the moment is that, you know, we're using their resources on, on on some of our projects. So we're currently working on the detailed design of the Adair bypass for sis Sorenson, who's our client to contractors. And again, that is a real pressurised project. Needs to be open in time for the Adair for the Ryder Cup. So there's a does that project has about, you know, 12 or 13 bridges out and need to be all designed quite quickly. So we're using Aegis offices around Europe and further afield to design those bridges. So we're using designers in Serbia, Poland and Thailand design bridges for us, which is a significant benefit to us.

Dusty Rhodes 19:36
Obviously, now you're pulling into the cavalry as it were, to get there. And what happens when you are when you're on a big, big project like that, and there's a very definite deadline, projects always run late. Do you mean problems always occur? Things happen money runs out, or people get sick, or whatever it happens to be like, you know, there's always problems have to be over when you've got a hard deadline like that. How do you hand. All, all of the problems leading up to that deadline.

Eamon Daly 20:04
Well, you're right on all engineering projects. There's challenges, there's things that change. People want to do things differently a certain time. But what we have is we've a really strong management team case we bring in additional resources. We can do that now, with the wider group, it's easier for us to do that. And then there's, like, there's huge communication on the project, so we're dealing with a contractor on that. So there's, there's meetings happening every day. Scheduled meetings happen, you know, a few times a week. And we things are brought to a head really quickly, and we make decisions and we move forward.

Dusty Rhodes 20:43
Let me ask you about something you mentioned. You mentioned the Lewis, yeah, and the Metro link. And there were some very controversial comments recently from Michael O'Leary with Ryanair, which is just what he does. All right, yeah. But I thought what he said was that the Metro link out to the airport, he said, is a waste of time. And I've you know, yeah, I'm used to hearing that. But what he said was that the amount of people who go to Heathrow Airport in London is something like 15% take the tube, which goes all over London. And he's saying his point of view is that an Irish version of that will be a waste of time, because literally, you're just going down through whatever Ballymore and fingers that kind of a way, and it's only the people who live in those direct areas would actually get the benefit. Is there any sense? Or is he completely wrong? Or how do you respond?

Eamon Daly 21:34
But I'm not directly involved in the measuring project myself. I'm giving you my own personal opinion on it.

Dusty Rhodes 21:39
That's all I want. And this has nothing to do with the companies, just between Eamon and Dusty and that's it.

Eamon Daly 21:46
Absolutely so for me, I think that's a real simplified view of the thing. First of all, I think that as a capital city, we certainly need a rail link into our city centre. That's a given. I think if you look at the capital cities all around the world, they all have a rail link, and generally it's an underground Rail Link. But he gets a very simplified view. For me, it's way more than just one link from the airport into the city centre. It's part of an integrated public transport system. So what I mean by that is that Metrolink isn't just a rail. It has stations. It has linkages. So it's going to link to dark plus it's going to link to the Lewis, it's going to link to the heavy rail system, and it's going to link to bus connects. Yeah. So it's way, if people can can, and aside down in any public transport system, people need to move or jump jump trains, or jump from bus to train, or jump from Lewis to train. And this is what it will do, and it's the first line. It may continue and it may expand. But what it does do, it also. It's certainly going to help, at some point, to reach our climate targets. And I read some, and I hope I'm writing this, that by somewhere around 2050 it's going to divert three, 50 million car trips, or something like that, which is a huge number. So it's going to take significant passengers, and it's a really efficient way of travel.

Dusty Rhodes 23:10
And, you know, I'm a big believer in, if you build it, they will come. It's taken from some movie or whatever. But if it's not there, people will moan. But as soon as it's there and you've gone through all of the pain, it's like, Ah, no, sure. I'll go into town. I'll take the metro link out to the airport. And I know from myself and my friends, when you're travelling abroad, and you get there to the airport, and if there's no train, you kind of go, Ah, come on. You don't do that when you come back to Dublin, for some reason. I don't know why, but the bus connects the bus side of it was another thing that Michael was saying. He says, there's a really good bus service from Dublin Airport, and there's always, I always feel sorry when I'm when I come home to Dublin, and I'm hearing people that kind of like, Yeah, I'm going to get the bus to Galway now. And I got ugh. But the fact that you can get the bus from Dublin Airport non stop, around the M 50 and straight over to Galway is a huge improvement, and what it was years ago. And I know the bus connects are making similar kind of improvements. Can you tell me more about them? Because you're involved in them as well.

Eamon Daly 24:11
Yeah, we're involved in a couple like we've we're involved in a bus connect scheme in, actually in Galway that's currently with on commission and all for black food. But we're also involved in the bus connects projects in Dublin. So there's 12, I suppose, quality bus corridors being sustainable transport corridors, just call them being constructed in Dublin. And the first two of those bus corridors have already been tendered. So we're a part of a team with a with a contractor called call Graham's, and we've tendered the first two projects with them, so we're the preferred bidder on one of those projects. So we're hoping that was they would get over the line at some point, but if not, we'd be involved in in in one of those projects at some point in the future.

Dusty Rhodes 24:55
Let's talk about a topic that is always close to every engineers heart or. Dread planning. Lots of changes in the planning scenario. Kind of recently, we've got a renaming of the planning board. There's changes in legislation and stuff like that. It's still a it's still a difficult area.

Eamon Daly 25:14
Where do the problems arise for you? It's changed hugely over my career anyway, so when I, when I started off planning of road schemes back in the early 2000's you could take, I suppose, a road project from feasibility study right through to planning, maybe in the order or years or five years. Now it's taken, you know, 10 years or 10 years plus to get it through the system. And you know, things have changed through that period. Like the whole process is like feasibility the option selection is a good one. So we would have gone through an option selection to choose the right type of project and the right type of road and the right location for within about 12 months, and that's taken significantly longer now, and there's just different processes. So now, when we start a project, we need to justify if it's a bypass or if it's a if it's a rail line. So we have to look at, you know, the forms of transport initially, to come up with, to see if it's a bypass. And then we saw a process of looking at long list of options and shorter lists of options. And so it just takes a lot, a lot longer. There's more processes, and that's to do with the planning as well, to show that we've gone through all the processes correctly. And then there's also approvals, in terms of business case approvals, which is is getting more and more stringent, and we need to get a government approval at certain points and in the process. So one of the things you mentioned was the new Planning and Development Act was in 2024 and again, I think there was a few things for that was really to help with accelerating the planning process and the all kind of the law aims to balance kind of faster housing and infrastructure. How would it need to protect, you know, their heritage. So recently, we've kind of seen some projects go through the planning process quicker. So connects, as an example, there was a same bypass, and they've gone through without the need for all hearings. Which is a positive, is a positive, positive thing in that it's going to help, help Quicken up them. So I think there's been changes on what can all has become on commission, and really it's, it's all to do with trying to get decisions made in a more timely, more timely manner.

Dusty Rhodes 27:24
And are you feeling positive that that may happen?

Eamon Daly 27:27
I am thinking positive. Yes. I've seen, you know, as on some projects recently, we've seen there are closed and we've seen post connects. It does seem to be happening. Yeah.

Dusty Rhodes 27:35
And tell me about resources as well, because that's that's another problem in engineering that people need to get over. You're often asked to do too much with not enough.

Eamon Daly 27:43
Yeah, I think, I think resources is a huge challenge at the moment in Ireland. So we can see the national development plan. I think that the I think it's 270 5 billion to be spent between 2026 and 2035, and of that, and even a transportation is over 20 to 22 billion. We can see there's a housing crisis, huge need for housing to be built and and now all takes resources. So there's only so many resources in Ireland. We can't We can't make them. There's only so many coming out each year from the university. So we do need to use international resources and design centers, but there's also a need to bring those resources to Ireland and into the country to work here. But again, it's a bit of a vicious circle, because we bring people into the country, there's nowhere to house them. So it is, it is a challenge. But also, you know, within our practice and consulting engineers, where, you know, we're looking for, for a large number of engineers and technicians and as our other consulting engineers, but also the clients are also looking for people to manage their projects. So you've TI and local authorities and the NDA and Irish Randy are all looking for for engineers and people to manage the projects for them on their side. So yeah, it is a challenge. It's when we're trying to work through and even as a company, it's difficult.

Dusty Rhodes 29:04
It's a strange thing, because I hear that quite a lot, that we don't have enough engineers, and there's no point in asking where we're going to get them from, because we're all engineers listening and the pair of us chatting. But where, what would you say to engineers listening to our chat today. What should they be saying to their friends, or their nieces, nephews, their friends, kids, or whatever, to try and encourage them to just get into engineering, because it's such an amazing, fascinating career.

Eamon Daly 29:33
Well, I would say that there's, there's, there's variety every day, just different challenges. Every day, the projects are all different. There's a variety of different like, I'm working in transportation, but we even within transportation, there's rail, there's there's bus, there's roads as a significant variety, and then there's the whole, you know, there's, there's housing and infrastructure, that type of infrastructure. There's water, wastewater sign, again, there's a huge need to. We can't build houses without, you know, improving have a new water supply, and water treatment is the huge factor. So it's great opportunities for anyone you know, coming in or young people, I suppose, our graduates in Civil Engineering at the moment, and it's similar, like when I graduated and in 1995 from UCD was probably a great time to be graduating, because I think the class in 94 a lot of them emigrated to get work. And I think the majority of the 95 this class, when I graduated, all got employment within Ireland.

Dusty Rhodes 30:35
And they were lucky Absolutely. I often think, since I've started doing the podcast, it's kind of like you say traveling the world or whatever, but they, they used to say that if you contend bar, you can work anywhere. And I actually think that engineering is a bit like being a bar man, except the pay is way better and the hours are far more sociable. I can't see why, because you said it yourself when you started off, you said you were kind of, you were getting your experience, and you were in the big cities and all that kind of stuff, but you wanted to move to Mayo. Boom. Off you went,

Eamon Daly 31:09
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, you know. So you're following your life, yeah? And even more so now, like with hybrid working, it's, you know, oh, it's even easier again, yeah.

Dusty Rhodes 31:15
And also the fact that you're able to bring in people from from around Europe, when you have a deadline on and you're able to bring in that help, like that's what I'm just saying, is the flexibility and and everything. There's so much to it. Way more people should be getting into engineering. Listen. Let me kind of wrap up our little chat today. Another thing is very important to engineers, right across the board, is sustainability. Your point of view with sustainability? Give it to me.

Eamon Daly 31:40
Obviously, sustainability is huge. At the moment, climate is huge, so sustainability needs to come into all projects. So again, example, there's Italy was famous. We've come up with a really innovative sustainable solution, and that the majority that is going to be a grass track, which is a really sustainable design, but also in terms of other infrastructure projects. So we're not only developing road schemes, but we're looking at how to develop a more sustainable so we're really looking at, you know, for example, the cut, fill balance, so how much we should dig out and where we to place it? Can we reuse that material so there's really as little amount of waste as possible within a project. And we're also looking at sustainable ways of travel within a project. So we're building active travel elements alongside a road to allow for people you know, to have more choice and to shift from cars to cycling, bicycles or whatever it is, looks the same. It's part of what we're doing now all the time, it's really business as usual.

Dusty Rhodes 32:46
Let me ask you, if you can give a little bit of advice to people listening about moving up the chain, what would you say, from your own experience, are the most effective ways for an engineer to fast track their career in a large consultancy.

Eamon Daly 33:01
It's very good question, Dusty. So as I said, it at the moment is a really positive time that the outlook for engineers is fantastic. At the moment, there's going to be great projects and mega projects in Ireland over the next, you know, 10 to 1520, years. So there's a great experience, a great it's a great time to be a young engineer. I would suggest get as much design experience as possible. Get as much varied experience as possible. So if you're working in roles, do it for a while. Learn a bit about about rail, about railways, learn about, you know, structures. Get you know, vary your experience. But also, I suppose, with so much work on it also brings a bit of pressure and design pressure. So I think good mentorship is good that someone you can go to and talk to as young engineers, you're going to make mistakes, you're going to worry if your design, you've done is correct. And there's problems all the time in engineering, but they do get resolved. Don't be afraid to ask for help to explain your concerns, there's always a solution. It's generally not as bad as you think it is.

Dusty Rhodes 34:07
Making mistakes is almost the best way to learn. Not big mistakes now, but little mistakes. You mentioned a mentor there? Did you have a mentor yourself?

Eamon Daly 34:16
I've had lots of mentors over the years. I suppose I spent a long time in JB, very in parallel stuff we went to, really since 1999 with a short sabbatical to the west of Ireland, giant hobos. But I when I joined JB, Barry's in 1999 Liam penderville was there at the time, and he led up the transportation division. So I've worked closely with Liam since, since 1999 and he's been, he's been a great mentor to me over those years.

Dusty Rhodes 34:46
And how did he mentor you? What? What way did he improve you?

Eamon Daly 34:50
I would say, just be able to bounce things off and through the talk problems, through issues, through, I think that's, that's really it's as simple as that to see, oh, that things come up. And we talked things through and we came up with waste was awesome, or to move forward.

Dusty Rhodes 35:05
And so if Liam, I think, I think Liam was the managing director, if I'm not mistaken, that's correct. Yeah, quite often it's hard to sit down and have a coffee with your managing director just to chat out problems, but it's good to have a mentor who's maybe one or two steps above you.

Eamon Daly 35:18
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely any like, I think you'll have mentors who are our peers. You'll have mentors who are, you know, maybe your line managers, but, but also, anyone in the company can be a mentor to you. I think it think, you know, you have to be able to approach people and be able to talk soon.

Dusty Rhodes 35:32
And you don't necessarily have to go because I'm in with the internet now, there's loads of people, oh, I'm a coach and I'm a mentor, and another, you don't have to go there in that line. It's people around you that you can use.

Eamon Daly 35:42
I think it's people, people who know of know the industry, as people you can provide and as people who can you can talk to if you're an issue or a problem, or you you have a concern.

Dusty Rhodes 35:50
And then outside of your immediate environment, I'm thinking about professional networks, I suppose, like engineers Ireland or industry organizations. Have you found them to be valuable for your own career growth?

Eamon Daly 36:03
Yeah, absolutely. Like engineers aren't do do great work. They've great CPD continuing professional development, so they're constantly putting on talks or lectures. So I find them very good, and attend those regularly. We're also part of the Association of consulting engineers of Ireland, again, which, which kind of, I suppose, give advice and protect Consulting Engineers. So yeah, I find both those organizations to be, to be very helpful.

Dusty Rhodes 36:29
And they have live meetups, as they call it these days, events, as you say, where you can actually go and hold a cup of coffee or playing to Guinness or whatever, and you say hello to somebody, and how are you? Did you find that kind of conversation with people useful.

Eamon Daly 36:43
And it's like, I think, I think networking outside your organisation is always useful. And look, we as consultant engineers, or regularly talk to other Consulting Engineers, see what's happening and what's going on. And, you know, we talk from time to time with, you know, on certain projects or really large projects, about teaming up with other consultants. So it's always good to talk. We talked to contractors. Constantly, me up at them to find out what's going on from their side and what projects are coming up and what they're looking at. So we're constantly looking and chatting to them.

Dusty Rhodes 37:11
So now you're kind of sitting high up in the operation. You've got lots of engineers who are coming up the ladder. We may have a couple of engineers listening, going, I want to move up. If you were starting your engineering career today, what areas would you focus on to future proof your skills?

Eamon Daly 37:29
And I'm a little bit biased, so I'd be saying transportation, you know, and we, you can see we spoke about the National Development Plan area and on the likes of Metro and Inc and the Lewis and the road network that needs to be improved, so I guess there's great opportunity there.

Dusty Rhodes 37:46
All right, good stuff. Listen, Eamon. You have been an absolute genius and a joy to talk to, and you've given us so much of your time and so much great information.

Eamon Daly 38.14
Thank you very, very much.

Dusty Rhodes 38:19
If you'd like to find out more about Eamon’s work and the topics we discussed today, you'll find notes and link details in the description of this podcast. But for now, Eamon Daly, Director at Egis, thank you so much. We hope that you enjoyed our conversation today. If you know another engineer who would appreciate these insights, please do share this podcast with them. They can find us by searching for Engineers Ireland, wherever they listen to podcasts. The podcast is produced by dustpod.io for Engineers Ireland, for advanced episodes, more information on the latest trends or career development device. You can find a wealth of resources on the website at engineers ireland.ie. On the next time for myself. Dusty Rhodes, thank you for listening.

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