Certification in Modern Methods of Construction

The National Standards Authority of Ireland is offering Certifications on the construction stage and sign-off on Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) products and building system installation compliance under current Irish Building Regulations.

This will improve residential construction product assessment processes, including expanding the current NSAI Agrément approach, to ease certification of new building methods, the introduction of sustainable construction materials, and oversight of on-site installation.

NSAI Certification ensures certified products are ‘proper materials’, processes and building systems are suitable for their intended use under Irish site conditions, and per the Building Regulations 1997 to 2025. Our emphasis on quality assurance and with offsite or onsite manufacturers' quality control approach ensures compliance with established standards and provides reliable and precise building materials to the construction industry here.

To help SMEs in Ireland and abroad understand and prepare for the Agrément certification process in Ireland, NSAI has created an MMC Toolkit, which is continually updated.

 

Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025 - 2030

This action falls under "Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030" an Action plan on housing supply.

“Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025- 2030” is a multi-annual, multi-billion-euro plan which will improve Ireland’s housing system and deliver more homes of all types for people with different housing needs up to 2030. To apply, a Company must already have completed Agrément Certification, provided by NSAI. This is designed specifically for recently developed building materials, products and processes for which published national standards do not yet exist.

To facilitate the introduction of sustainable construction products, NSAI has commenced planning for the assessment of sustainable construction products in line with the new EU Construction Products Regulation (EU/2024/3310) and with EU/305/2011 requirements.

These actions will be taken consistently to the relevant actions set out in the current Climate Action Plan to ensure low carbon construction products demonstrate compliance with all other performance requirements. NSAI also published the Agrement Guide for Modern Methods of Construction under the Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025 -2030 plan, which can be viewed here.

 

NSAI – Modern Methods of Construction

NSAI certifies innovative offsite manufactured building systems through the application of rigorous review of standards, EU Directives, Regulations, Codes of Practice, Laboratory testing, etc. looking at all aspects of the process – from components, manufacturing processes, factory facility inspections, onsite visits, to final sign-off. We have worked with Ireland’s leading offsite manufacturers in the development of their building systems to a stage where they can be certified to comply with Irish Building Regulations.

NSAI Agrément sets the bar for construction quality in Ireland and has greatly contributed to the development of this sector. In 2021 alone the Irish Government spent over €10 billion on construction projects prescribed by the National Development Plan (NDP) and Project Ireland 2040. Project Ireland 2040 is the national framework in place for the development of physical infrastructure in Ireland for the coming two decades. This has been further funded through the updated National Development Plan (NDP) review for 2026-2035 and supported by the Accelerating Infrastructure Report and Action Plan, published in Q4, 2025.

Under Project Ireland 2040 and the current Programme for Government, Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) will increase modular and offsite manufacturing to higher standards of design, fabrication, testing and certification. Agrément Certification is central to this.

As the construction industry adopts modern methods such as Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), Operational Excellence, Lean Manufacturing and Building Information Modelling (BIM), it is expected that new and innovative materials and processes will see the construction industry here evolve more rapidly than it has in decades.

NSAI continues to develop its' certification service which can be seen through Modern Methods of Constructions' latest study, International Construction Quality Assurance & Certification Schemes. This study demonstrates our commitment to ensuring a best-in-class certification process and can be read here.

IPD is used in construction to increase communication and team efficiencies by providing an integrated approach for personnel, systems and practices while BIM is the process of managing the information produced during design and throughout a construction project. Operational Excellence, coupled with Lean Manufacturing & Lean Construction methodologies further enhance the deliver and efficiences of offsite manufacturing and onsite construction assembly and installation, in a controlled manner.

The synergies found in these integrated project management and construction models will help drive innovations and efficiencies in construction here in Ireland.

NSAI offers certification to ISO 19650, the international standard for managing information over the whole life cycle of a built asset using BIM. While the use of BIM is still evolving in the Irish construction sector, its inclusion in public sector tenders and increased training and upskilling by industry professionals will see it become more widely used across the country.

The new European Strategy for Housing Construction, published on 19 December 2025, further supports the development and implementation of digitalisation, bio-based & innovative materials and modern methods of construction adoption to meet current and future demands across Europe.