100,000 construction jobs at risk if projects are stalled, builders warn

UP TO 100,000 construction jobs will be lost over the next year unless the Government meets its National Development Plan (NDP) targets, builders warned yesterday.

The Construction Industry Federation (CIF) said yesterday that while the Government was committed to spending €6 billion a year on public projects such as roads and transport, work on developments worth between €500 million and €1 billion would begin this year.

The federation argued that while the Government was continuing to spend money on ongoing projects, it was not planning or preparing for new developments, which meant that spending would eventually dry up.

“Significant and welcome spending by the State this year relates to ongoing programmes, such as the inter-urban motorways programme, which are coming to a conclusion,” the federation said in its mid-year review yesterday.

“However, new projects identified in the National Development Plan and subsequent Government investment plans are unlikely to start and this will see significant job losses, up to 100,000, in the sector over the next 12 months.”

The federation estimates that 200,000 building jobs were lost over the last two years as the credit crunch and recession took hold.

At the review’s publication yesterday, the federation’s director, Tom Parlon, said that the recession has presented the Government with a “golden opportunity” to bridge the Republic’s infrastructure gap and get unprecedented value for taxpayers’ money.

Mr Parlon pointed out that recent independent figures showed that Irish building companies are on average tendering for contracts at 20 per cent below cost.

“It’s an indication of the frustration at the lack of work out there and the intensity at which firms are trying to keep work coming in and cash flow going,” Mr Parlon said.

In its original budget for this year, which it announced last October, the Government pledged to spend €7.5 billion a year on public building projects, but cut that to €6 billion in the emergency package published last April.

Public building projects have to go through long planning and contracting stages before the bulk of the money is spent.

The Construction Industry Federation says that the State has slowed the rate at which this preparatory work is being done.

Earlier this week, the State’s Rail Procurement Agency announced that it has shortlisted two bidders, Celtic Metro and Metro Express, to build the proposed underground link between Dublin airport and the city centre.

This project will cost between €2 billion and €5 billion, according to various estimates. The Metro is a public-private partnership, which means that the bidder will carry much of the cost and risks associated with the project.