, a contract extension until the end of 2023, when he will retire at the age of 70 after 16 years leading the organisation.Hubert Fitzpatrick
, its current chief operating officer , will become director general-designate at the beginning of 2023, before taking over the role proper in the middle of the year. Parlon still stay on staff until the end of 2023 as part of a handover process. The CIF’s succession planning operation reveals a little of the competing political priorities within the building industry’s top lobby group.
It is an extremely broad organisation, representing associations of everything from painters and decorators to the large commercial contractors that build facilities for multinationals and civil and engineering firms., which has its own distinct and powerful voice within the CIF, and whose members uniquely are at the heart of the biggest issue facing the State, which brings its own lobbying priorities.
Fitzpatrick, meanwhile, has a long history of expertise with housing issues. He was once CIF’s director of Housing and Planning, while he has also worked in similar areas for local authorities.The decision by the federation’s leadership committee to give a new contract to Parlon, who fought hard to stay on, while at the same time anointing housing boffin Fitzpatrick as his successor, is a deft example of how a broad church such as the CIF keeps all of its faithful happy.