Government Strategy to Increase use of Digital Technology Launched

Feb 01, 2018

On 21st November 2017, the opening morning of the CitA BIM Gathering 2017, The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe, T.D. and the Minister of State with special responsibility for Public Procurement, Open Government and eGovernment, Patrick O’Donovan, T.D., set out the Government’s strategy for the increased use of digital technology in the delivery of key public works projects that are funded through the public capital programme.

The strategy sees public bodies establishing requirements for the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the design, construction and operation of public buildings and infrastructure on a phased basis over the coming years.

 

Minister O’Donovan said ‘BIM is fast becoming an essential requirement for informed consumers of construction services internationally, and many countries have established BIM requirements at a national level. It has already been successfully used on a number of complex building projects completed in Ireland in recent years, primarily in the technology and pharmaceutical sectors. It is also being used on the National Children’s Hospital at the St James’s Hospital campus, on the Dublin Institute of Technology’s Grangegorman Campus and across the Public Private Partnership programme.’

At a European level, the significant efficiencies that BIM brings to project delivery and operation are recognised. The 2014 Procurement Directive makes provision for its use and the European Commission has established the EU BIM Task Group to deliver a common European network aimed at aligning the use of BIM in public works. The publication of the Task Group’s Handbook for the Introduction of BIM by Europe’s Public Sector Community at the end of June is timely in the context of the Government’s strategy.

The Government strategy has a two-fold objective, firstly to manage the adoption of BIM in an orderly fashion across the public capital programme, reducing the disruption that such change processes can bring both within the public sector and to the consultants and contractors that are engaged thereunder. The second objective is to act as a catalyst for its wider adoption across the industry generally. The sustained period of growth in the construction sector affords an opportunity to introduce these requirements in a managed fashion to enable industry to adapt to the new processes and procedures that BIM requires.

During the CitA BIM Gathering held in November, David O'Brien, Chair of GCCC, announced that further details and staging of BIM implementation by the GCCC will be forthcoming in early 2018.  

Find out more about how GARLAND are already adopting BIM process when delivering award winning projects here and watch Kevin Rudden's video on what BIM looks like in Ireland here.

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