Ireland’s construction surge: What is driving spike in housing commencements?

Some 18,000 housing commencements were recorded in April. It’s a huge number and well up on the normal run rate. What was behind that spike?

And do we have enough construction workers to build these homes and get to the magic 50,000 new homes a year target that we’re told we need to hit in order to meet demand?

On this week’s episode of Inside Business, host Ciarán Hancock is joined on the line by director general of the Construction Industry Federation Hubert Fitzpatrick to discuss these issues.

Also on the podcast, this week saw Intel’s huge manufacturing campus in Leixlip, Co Kildare make global headlines with reports of an €11 billion refinancing and the possibility of investment in a new plant there. Local TD James Lawless of Fianna Fail joined us in studio to go through the details.