Construction Contracts Adjudication Panel

Rule Changes

Administering growing caseload of payment disputes

Ireland's Construction Contracts Act was supposed to ensure builders got paid on time. For a decade, contractors believed that if a client didn't respond to a payment claim within 21 days, the money was automatically owed. A High Court ruling in January 2026 determined that was never true—the law contains no such automatic payment requirement, and clients can simply ignore bills they dispute.

Updated Feb 10