One More Thing: Property lobby group builds for the future

There's a bit of house-keeping going on over at Property Industry Ireland (PII), the industry lobby group that represents the building professions such as surveyors and engineers, as well as the mucky builders.

Since it was founded just over two years ago, PII’s chairman has been Kieran McGowan, the former IDA chief executive and also a past CRH chairman. McGowan is staying on the board but has been replaced as chairman by Aidan O’Hogan, a surveyor by trade and the former chairman of Savills estate agents.

PII has also hired a new boss, Dr Peter Stafford, formerly of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland where he was head of policy and public affairs.

That’s the two top jobs gone to surveyor types, who clearly have the leadership qualities. You could never put the architects in charge: there’d be plenty of interesting ideas, but nothing would get done.

Stafford, whose new title is director, was previously a senior executive at the Construction Industry Federation, the Real Madrid to PII's Barcelona.

He replaces the former Ibec public affairs boss, Finola McDonnell, who has moved on to pastures new during the summer.

There are some in the property industry who are daring to dream of a recovery soon in the sector. One property type told me this week that he had had “a really good year”. Sounds like PII’s new recruits will have plenty to lobby about.