RTÉ Media Centre

Wednesday September 17 21:35

Ireland needs 300,000 new homes by 2030, but who’s actually building them? This documentary goes behind the hoardings to meet the real people constructing the nation’s future.

Meet Chantreen O’Connor, the 25-year-old Estonian-Irish electrical apprentice passionate about showcasing the trades on social media and inspiring other young women to pick up tools. Adrian Groza spends weekdays running his ICF construction company and weekends preaching sermons – the Romanian builder-priest whose faith shapes how he cares for his workforce.

Kate Fahey operates cranes 130 feet above Dublin – at 21, she’s one of the world’s youngest female tower crane operators, showing thousands of TikTok followers that construction isn’t just a man’s world. Juan fled Colombia after his surgeon brother was murdered by cartels, now rebuilding his life as a carpenter.

Tommy and Lorna Peate run Builder Hoists Ireland, the family business that’s lifted Ireland’s biggest construction projects skyward for three decades. Meanwhile, Lukas and Henri have turned roofing into viral content, their “Roofing Cartel” pranks landing them real contracts. Elkana left Congo at 16 thinking he was Paris-bound but ended up a Dublin plumbing apprentice with dreams of his own company.

Through these diverse voices, the programme reveals who’s really building Ireland – one brick at a time.