Building industry 'needs to work with Government'
CIF conference is told that sector could generate 75,000 jobs
The Construction Industry Federation's annual conference today is being told that the industry could generate 75,000 jobs, create25,000 houses a year and deliver infrastructure projects worth over €26 billion, if what was described as "a supportive policy framework" was in place.
CIF president Michael Stone said construction was critical to the country’s growth and job creation.
"The majority of key Government targets in the Action Plan for Jobs, the Public Capital Programme, the Enterprise 2025 strategy, the IDA’s FDI targets, the National Broadband Plan and others are dependent on our industry’s capacity to deliver high quality construction," he said.
Stone said the global construction market was estimated to grow to $15 trillion by 2030 and the Irish industry aimed to capture these opportunities, generating jobs and growth and increasing exports.
But he said that, to achieve this, the sector needed to work with the Government to remove what he called barriers to growth, which made it impossible for small building firms to expand and realise their potential. "Addressing market failure in finance, supply constraints in housing, planning issues, low technology uptake amongst companies and collaboration across the supply chain will equip the industry to become globally successful,” he said.
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