Established since 1972, Tom O’Brien Construction is a family-owned, award-winning construction company which has built up a fantastic reputation for building quality and excellence.
Building Ireland recently caught up with Tom O’Brien jnr (Director) and Joe Carley (Senior Quantity Surveyor) to hear more about the state of business at the moment for the Co Waterford firm and the projects it has on the horizon for later this year.
Since its inception 54 years ago, Tom O’Brien construction has built its reputation on quality workmanship and long-standing relationships with public and private clients alike.
This award-winning business has grown from humble beginnings, back to the time when Tom O’Brien snr first founded the company in 1972 from the family home in Co. Waterford to now employing 50 full-time staff from its base of operations in Bilberry Business Park in Waterford city. Tom O’Brien Construction sees itself very much as being not only a Main Contracting Firm but as “Construction Partners and decent people to work with”. The company is led by Managing Director Tom O’Brien with other key personnel including Commercial Director Nick Furness. The team includes Contracts Managers, Senior and Junior Quantity surveyors, site engineers, a HSEQ team, an accounts department, several site managers, along with a full suite of professional staff based at its head offices in Bilberry, Co. Waterford and skilled operatives of various job roles across its sites.
The company has proven track record of delivering major construction projects across a diverse range of sectors which includes Education, Healthcare, Heritage & Conservation, Commercial, Industrial, Residential, Retail, Fitout, Leisure & Sport and Pharma, with its main services being Traditional Contract Building; Design & Build; and Civil Engineering Services.
Building Ireland touched base with both Tom O’Brien jnr and Joe Carley, a senior quantity surveyor with the firm, to discuss recent developments and upcoming projects for this thriving business.
“Recent months have seen the completion of a number of major projects,” said Tom, “ The conservation and restoration of the Historic City Hall and Bishops Palace buildings on the Mall in Waterford City was delivered late last year to our clients in Waterford City & County Council.”
Tom O’Brien Construction, as an officially registered Heritage Contractor, along with its specialist subcontractors displayed their enviable conservation capabilities once again, adding to the firm’s already impressive portfolio of Heritage Works.
Joe added: “As members of the prestigious Register of Heritage Contractors of Ireland, recent years have also seen the firm expand our enviable Conservation & Heritage Works portfolio, along with our Deep Energy Retrofit abilities.”
Joe noted a number of educational sector projects had also been recently handed over; “Recent years have seen the firm ramp up the delivery of Deep Retrofit, Decarbonisation and Energy Upgrade projects, particularly in the education sector.
“Late last year 2025 saw the firm deliver a major Energy Upgrade projects in Counties Wexford and Carlow – two no. primary schools near Wellingtonbridge in Co. Wexford along with a multi-storey teaching building at SETU Carlow respectively underwent deep retrofits and refurbishments by our teams.”
Right now, business is good at Tom O’Brien Construction and they mean to keep it that way for the foreseeable from their headquarters at Bilberry Business Park in Waterford City.
“Currently our teams are busy focusing on achieving successful handovers for a number of large-scale projects,” said Joe. “The first quarter of 2026 will see the firm hand over a number of substantial projects including; a social housing scheme in Carlow Town, a new Library Development in Thomastown Co. Kilkenny, a new three-storey MRI Facility at Wexford General Hospital, along with a Major circa €12 million Multi-Storey Carpark development at Wexford General Hospital which is due to be taken in charge by the Hospital in the coming weeks.”
Tom added recent months have also seen a number of new projects commence in both the public and private sectors; “We are currently constructing a new Pathology Laboratory Facility in University Hospital Waterford for the HSE along with major new Warehouse facilities for the internationally recognised Nolan Transport Group, at their Global logistics Park in Drinagh Co. Wexford.”
The company has an extremely strong pipeline of works with some major projects in the Education field in particular due to commence across the Southeast in 2026.
“We have recently been awarded a major Educational Design & Build Project by our joint Clients in the Department of Education of Youth, Waterford Wexford Education & Training Board and the SEAI,” said Joe. “We have been tasked with delivering deep retrofit, energy upgrade and refurbishment works to a bundle of six separate large post-primary schools all across Co. Wexford throughout the school’s Summer Holiday periods of 2026.”
Joe noted: “It’s a mammoth undertaking but one we are really looking forward to delivering for our clients, as an example I believe there’s almost a thousand windows to be replaced across the six schools in only a matter of weeks of actually being on site during the school’s summer break.
“So yes, we are quite busy at the moment,” Joe outlined. “We’ve had a busy 2025 and and we’ve got a busy year ahead with a number of projects in the pipeline The spring and summer periods in particular are shaping up to be very productive so long may that continue.”
Right now, Tom O’Brien Construction have a number of significant healthcare projects at advanced stages across the Southeast, reflecting its strong track record in delivering complex works in live healthcare settings.
Tom noted: “Operating in live healthcare settings requires precision, coordination and sensitivity to patient and staff needs — an area where our teams have built considerable expertise over the years.
“Delivering major healthcare projects is something that the company has been doping for a great many years and we hope to keep delivering quality works in this sector for many years to come.”
Alongside healthcare works, the company is progressing several independent projects in the private sector, however, a major focus for the year ahead will be the previously mentioned bundle of six Design & Build schools across north and south Wexford.
“They’re a bundle of six design and builds schools across north and south Wexford, spanning the county,” said Joe.
Tom outlined: “It’s an extremely important project bundle for the Department of Education & Youth and all the various stakeholders involved as part of the wider pathfinder programme, and that has been stressed to us from the start of the tender period so we will leave no stone unturned in the planning and coordinating of these works to ensure positive outcomes and successful handovers are achieved for our clients and indeed the school bodies at the end of the summer.”
The scale of the schools’ programme represents a significant workload, but one the company is well accustomed to managing, given its longstanding involvement in educational construction projects.
“Having said that, we have lot of experience and expertise in the educational sector, delivering projects to tight timeframes and more often than not on live school campuses. We’re used to working in live environments and we enjoy building good rapports with the school management and staff, it makes delivering these complex projects all the more enjoyable when everyone is working together to achieve the same outcome.
“We work with the client in all cases and there’s a decent level of client satisfaction in how we conduct ourselves when we’re in these places. That helps when we put together our CVs for our tenders and we always score quite highly under past experiences in our CVs.
Joe added: “I seem to be working in schools since I left school, and that’s a long time ago. Perhaps I should’ve become a teacher. There’s a lot of experience in delivering major public works at Tom O’Brien Construction and there’s no substitute for that experience so I’m glad we have that at the company.”
Tom believes that technical expertise combined with strong problem-solving skills and the fact that much of the senior management team have been with the firm for so many years is what sets the senior management team apart. “Turnover of staff within the firm has always been exceptionally low down through the years and this gives our clients a comfort factor, knowing that a familiar voice will answer the phone and a familiar face will be managing and delivering their project.”
In total, seven of the 50 staff currently employed by the firm have been working for Tom O’Brien Construction for over 30 years and a further five have been employed by the firm for over 20 years. Impressive for a family-owned main contracting firm serving Ireland’s notoriously tumultuous construction industry for over half a century.
Tom noted: “We have a good core group of staff here. We have managed to maintain that group for an awful long time and that means we have managed to build and maintain relationships with various public and private bodies.
“I think our Clients and Design Team Partners like to work with us time and again because of our ability to problem solve. If there are issues on site, the experience and construction expertise of our people allows us to engage with the Design Team and Client to make suggestions on how problems can be solved, all for the ultimate benefit of the client.”
Joe, who joined the company in 2018, highlighted the importance of the firm’s collective experience.
“From what I gather I think the reason why the HSE and the Department of Education and various other public and private bodies have returned to Tom O’Brien Construction and seem to like working with our management teams is because of our wealth of expertise, as I mentioned previously.”
Joe outlined: “Our expertise in delivering complex public projects and how the members of our senior management team, due to their past experiences, are able to problem solve for our Clients and Design team Partners on these projects and are of a considerable aid to design teams and those public bodies because of their expertise in carrying out health board works and education sector works over such a long period of time.”
So, all of that considered, the clear question is what has been the secret behind the success of Tom O’Brien Construction to date?
How has a small start-up established over 50 years ago grown into what is now very much a thriving construction business “First of all, it is our steadfast commitment to delivering to our clients, projects that are constructed to the highest possible standards of quality each and every time that separate us from the competition.” Tom pointed out. “Secondly, it is the assurances we are proudly able offer to our clients, knowing that they are working with a longstanding professional construction company that has been in continuous service to the construction industry for over 50 years.”
With multiple healthcare facilities nearing completion, a substantial six-school programme about to commence, and additional public and private projects underway, the year ahead promises to remain as busy as the last — just the way they like it at Tom O’Brien Construction.
Tom O’Brien Construction
Bilberry Business Park,
Waterford City,
Co Waterford.
X91 R588
Tel: (051) 873 455 / (051) 873 650
Email: [email protected]
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, June 2026, Vol 12 No 6
featured, Tom O’Brien Construction
