Mr. Philip Crampton:

I thank the Chairman and members for inviting us to appear before the committee. The Construction Industry Federation made a detailed submission to it which I will attempt to summarise in approximately nine slides. I hope members will then have questions for us.

The first slide shows the economic scope and scale of the construction industry. The generally accepted sustainable level of investment in construction as a proportion of GDP is between 10% and 12%. As the figures show, the Irish construction industry falls far below this accepted norm. DKM Economic Consultants which helped us to prepare the submission predicts that the industry will grow by an annual average of 9% until 2020, reaching an output of approximately €20 billion. The construction industry and the Government must work closely together to ensure this growth occurs in the most efficient and sustainable manner, shaping the economy and society and ensuring we generate quality jobs and careers.

The next slide shows that the construction industry is one of the largest sources of employment in the State. We have forecast demand for an additional 110,000 employees, based on the targets outlined in the Government's Rebuilding Ireland house building strategy and the existing public capital programme. This will present a challenge to the industry and the State education and training system. We are working with SOLAS, the education and training boards and the Department of Education and Skills to attract people into the industry through the Central Applications Office, upskilling some of those on the live register and attracting members of the diaspora to return home. The slide shows the significant employment capacity of the construction industry. We expect to add approximately 50,000 new employees by the second quarter of 2018. We have established a skills forum with SOLAS to identify blockages in the system and ensure we will meet future demands for skills to deliver infrastructure and housing targets.

The title of the next slide, "Infrastructure Investment Dangerously Low", sums up our view of the current state of infrastructure and provides a sense of the scale of the problem. Ireland is at the bottom of the investment table. Slovakia, Latvia, Malta, Poland and Estonia all invest more than we do in infrastructure as a percentage of GDP.

As the Chairman noted and the committee will no doubt have found in its deliberations, there is consensus that Ireland's construction infrastructure is inadequate. The slide gives a sense of the scale of the problem. The comments made by the chief executives of the predominant foreign direct investment companies located here are worrying. Country managers of these companies are all being asked questions from their headquarters about housing, water and transport. Increasing investment is imperative, especially as we are spending an increasing proportion of investment in maintaining what we have, rather than developing new infrastructure.

The Irish civil engineering sector is competent and world class and relies, in the main, on public sector construction projects. However, the sector has been static for a number of years. This year it slipped into negative activity levels for four months in a row. DKM Economic Consultants predict zero growth or negative activity levels in the industry in 2017 and 2018. This essentially means that the public sector pipeline has dried up, making planning, investment and forecasting in the sector very difficult and threatening its capacity to deliver. Without a strong civil engineering sector, the housing and commercial and residential property sectors and overall competitiveness are damaged.

At this point, I will hand over to our vice president, Mr. Lucey, who is a former chairman of the Civil Engineering Contractors Association.