For her contribution towards business, Sinead Malloy was the winner of Best Start up Business 2021. Sinead is delighted and honored to be holding such an amazing award.

Read the Belfastlive news update:

A Belfast woman is hoping to create a “new normal” in the construction industry as she encourages more women to get involved in the trade.

Sinead Molloy has worked in the construction industry for over 10 years operating various different machines such as telehandlers, forklifts and cranes and after returning from Australia she was disappointed to see the lack of other women on the building site.

She said while she was working in Australia it had become very common for females to be involved in the construction industry, particularly on the driving side with some female only driving firms finding a lot of success.

Sinead said: “I was working in Australia for ten years driving machines, came back here and noticed that girls were not doing it here. I had a friend with a company out there with only female drivers and they found a lot of success with some big firms eventually growing to prefer them than others.

“In Belfast there are very few women on the ground at sites, with them mainly being involved in health and safety or engineering. There is a stigma with females on site, but I know a lot of girls here who would be very hands on, they just don’t know where to start or where to go to get into the industry.”