Barriers to the adoption of alternative dispute resolution within the Irish construction industry: a systematic literature review

The Construction Contracts Act 2013 introduced statutory adjudication to the Republic of Ireland's construction industry. Since the legislation became operative in 2016, uptake of adjudication has admittedly been slow. This research aims to identify the barriers that may cause the non-utilisation of newly introduced alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methods. To address this, a systematic literature review (SLR) is conducted. The search comprises of research documents containing the terms "alternative dispute resolution", "construction", and "Ireland", published between the years 2004-2024. Of the initial 77 documents, 20 are eligible for inclusion in this study. Following this, an exhaustive list of potential barriers is extracted and documented. 16 barriers are identified, including cost of ADR for clients, and third?party's capability, among others. The contribution of this research is to highlight the barriers facing newly introduced ADR methods, a finding that may garner the attention of policy makers, and subsequently enable them to begin addressing the barriers identified. Resultantly making newer methods, such as adjudication in Ireland's construction industry, more accessible and feasible to those they are intended to assist.