The slowdown in some areas of the construction industry and the controversy affecting the building of new national roads need the urgent attention of the Government, the Construction Industry Federation said yesterday.
Speaking after the publication of the Department of the Environment's annual review of the industry, Mr Liam Kelleher, director general of the CIF, said the "phenomenal" growth in the construction industry had begun to slow down and was now undergoing a period of "consolidation".
In his report, Review 2000: Outlook 2001-2003, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, said the reduced construction price inflation should improve housing affordability and secure the building of vital infrastructure projects under the National Development Plan (NDP).
His estimate of an inflation rate of 8 per cent in building prices for 2001 was, however, challenged by the CIF, which said it would be "well below" that figure. The new report says the volume of building output grew by 6 per cent and reached a value of almost £14 billion in 2000. Growth will, it estimates, moderate this year to almost 3 per cent this year, but will still reach a record value of £15 billion.
Almost 50,000 houses were built last year, an "all-time record", the department said.
Mr Kelleher warned, however, that contractors were actively seeking projects and that the real challenge for the industry now was to maintain employment at its current levels. Some 182,000 people will be employed in the industry by the end of the year.
The current spare capacity was sufficient to facilitate the delivery of projects in the NDP and it was up to the Government to ensure that the pre-construction procedures for projects in the NDP were accelerated, he said. Controversy impacting on the work of the National Roads Authority also needed urgent attention.