25 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2024
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L-R: Bryan Vaughan, CEF President, and Martin O’Kane, CEF Past President.
L-R: Bryan Vaughan, CEF President, Rhona Quinn, CEF Past President, and Mark Spence, CEF Chief Executive.
CELEBRATING ITS SILVER ANNIVERSARY, THE CEF CONSTRUCTION EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2024 WERE HELD AT THE CROWNE PLAZA BELFAST ON OCTOBER 3… CEF calls on NI Executive to take bold, decisive action to address barriers to growth
Northern Ireland’s government has been urged to take bold, decisive action to address barriers to growth, specifically around decades of underfunding of water and wastewater systems in the region. CEF Chief Executive Mark Spence issued the call during his address at the CEF Construction Excellence Awards 2024, held at the Crowne Plaza Belfast on October 3. Welcoming a record 630 guests, the 25th annual awards saw 28 accolades handed out to companies, people and projects representing the best of Northern Ireland’s construction industry. Newry-based Felix O’Hare lifted the overall project award for the Riddel Hall Management School at Queen’s University Belfast, while Terina McDermott of
McKelvey Construction was recognised as Outstanding Contributor, Harry McFarland of Dawson WAM as Apprentice of the Year and John McGinnis of the McGinnis Group received the Lifetime Achievement Award. “Tonight is a celebration of the outstanding work that our industry delivers across sectors as varied as education, health, infrastructure and homebuilding, both in Northern Ireland and increasingly further afield,” said Mark. “However, what tonight must also be about is starting a meaningful and informed dialogue about how we ensure that this place we call home can meet its undoubted economic potential.” Referring to the NI Executive’s draft Programme for Government and the
issue of NI Water’s underfunding, he said, “In our opinion, any solution must begin at the highest level with the Executive’s nine-point Programme for Government. While the commitment within it to housing is welcomed, we firmly believe that how we sustainably fund our water and wastewater system is itself more than worthy of being a 10th priority, underpinning and enabling the other nine. “With that strategic focus, we then believe the Executive could properly and jointly consider the matter of underfunding, that has been largely responsible for a 60-year low of housing completions in 2023, a record sadly likely to be eclipsed by a new low this year. “In March this year, the Audit Office report on NI Water recommended that
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