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Good morning, Gerry, thank you for taking the time to tell us about your experience as a Quantity Surveyor (to use the UK/Irish title of the role). I know you are from Ireland but is that where you grew up and where you were educated?

I was born and raised in the same house in Dublin. When I left school in 1973, I started work as an apprentice quantity surveyor on my father’s advice that it was a good career (he had a very good friend who was a property surveyor, so he assumed that Quantity Surveyors did the same thing)!

CEEC: Delegate since 1998

Name

Gerry O’Sullivan

Born

Dublin, Ireland

Company

O Sullivan Conciliation Ltd

Current position

Consultant /Director

Country

Ireland The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) (https://scsi.ie/)

What first attracted you to construction and quantity surveying?

Like many young people, the final career outcome is usually as a result of advice from others and this was true in my case. For the first couple of years of my career I was with a Northern Ireland consultancy firm, who were very commercially focused. Subsequently, I joined Dublin City Council as an apprentice surveyor and embarked upon the direct RICS exam process which I failed at the first attempt! By 1979, I had passed the Final RICS exams and had received full RICS membership in 1982.

Where did this take you in your career, Gerry?

I decided to move out of the public sector at this point and joined a private practice which had been set up in the 1950s – and that firm was Mulcahy McDonagh & Partners (MMP), who were extremely good from the technical QS perspective, including the early introduction of main frame computers (prior to Microsoft)! In the late 80s I met and married my wife Una. At that time, Ireland was in a serious recession and MMP had to take work in London, sending us over on a Ryan Aer shuttle for six months. Accordingly, I decided to move to another firm, Desmond McGreevy & Partners and it was whilst there I found myself drawn much more to the legal and contractual side of construction, rather than ‘pure’ QS-type work. That involved studying for the Irish Bar at the Kings Inn, with a Diploma first, followed by a Bar degree (a qualifying course to become a barrister), and I was then called to the Bar in 1992.

You were called to the Bar in 1992 – what next?

My career then focussed on work with a construction contract and legal input. In more recent years the increasing use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) techniques and tools meant my focus was on solutions such as mediation/conciliation. In addition, the Irish system for construction ADR, known as conciliation, is used across both public and private sector standard construction contracts and continues to grow in importance and use. In 2023 I retired from Mulcahy McDonagh and set up my own consultancy practice, O Sullivan Conciliation, specialising in resolving construction disputes.

Was there a stand-out project you worked on?

Given the nature of the legal and contractual work, there is no ‘stand-out’ project as such but rather my biggest joy at work is to see the parties to a dispute agree to resolve their differences by not ‘going legal’ but by using ADR solutions to resolve contractual problems. The use of the legal route is usually a casualty of recession within the construction industry and this was no different in the early 1990s. Accordingly, I went out on my own for a number of years and formed a joint venture with McBains Cooper in the mid-1990s. That venture was unfortunately not successful and consequently I finally re-joined MMP in the year 2000.

Do tell us about one of your favourite buildings in Dublin.

One of my favourites is the National Gallery, originally built in the 1860’s which had a tasteful modern extension added around 2000 and the original fully restored over the next decade. I also had to mediate on a dispute between contractor and scaffold specialist arising from repairs to the ornate glass roof during the course of that refurbishment.

What does work look like for you now, Gerry?

I am now ‘semi-retired’ having left MMP in 2023 and have become a sole consultant undertaking conciliations, mediations and adjudications. In addition, I do expert witness work and risk assessments, which are, of course, very time consuming. It remains sad to see that people still seek to distort the truth whilst pursuing their case.

What made you decide to accept the invitation to join CEEC?

As most readers will be aware, CEEC (https://ceecorg.eu) was formed in 1979, I believe, between UNTEC, RICS and (at the time) the Irish branch of the RICS. (Though our colleagues in UNTEC argue for an even earlier date). SCSI (https://scsi.ie/) was formed as an independent Society some 10 years later and from that point SCSI representatives were sent to CEEC meetings, in 1992 I was voted onto the SCSI QS committee and acted as chair of that committee for two years (2006-2008). I was ‘volunteered’ to become one of the SCSI reps on CEEC with a view to checking out what they were doing and my first meeting was in Rotterdam in 1998. My belief was then, and remains, that CEEC should be technically based in our discussions and outputs and even then it was clear to me that the Dutch were very advanced in their thinking on sustainability and the carbon footprint of buildings.

You went on to have greater involvement and service within CEEC in later years – tell us about that.

I was subsequently involved with the development of the CEEC code of measure with Joe Martin (BCIS/RICS), Martin Wright (Swiss) and the late Peter Schmidt (Germany). I was then encouraged by the retiring CEEC President, Michael Webb (Irish guy) to join the CEEC Board in Rome in 2002 and was elected President (and served in the years 2005-2010). During my Presidency we sought new members from Eastern Europe (Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary) and made our first contact with PAQS and CIQS in 2010. This year I am stepping back from active involvement in CEEC and have encouraged a new SCSI representative to join who hopes to be with you for the next meeting in Delft in the Autumn.

Finally, Gerry what would you say are the biggest challenges to our profession today?

There is no doubt in my mind that the advent of AI and machine learning is both a threat and a challenge but which should also be seen as a huge opportunity. Within CEEC, the challenge is for us to remain relevant and this is why it is so important to have a clear vision of the direction for the organisation and that future projects are launched and developed for the good of all.

Gerry, it’s been great talking to you and I look forward to seeing you at the next CEEC (https://ceecorg.eu) conference in Delft. ‘Go raibh maith agat’!

This interview first appeared in CEEC Inside, September 2025. Read the original edition →