Ms Hazel Ahern-Flynn:

I will quickly address some of the comments that Deputy Healy-Rae made about construction of housing. He correctly flagged that the main bottleneck in the sector is the labour and skills issue, which is significant. It is not limited to just the construction sector, but it is particularly acutely felt in it. The next bottleneck is backlogs in the planning system. I know work is being done in that area but there is much more to do. The last matter, which he touched on briefly, is a rapid increase in construction costs that we are feeling on this island. Comparing now to before the pandemic, basic steel and concrete is settling at about one fifth higher than it was even a few years ago, so that is baking into construction costs. Regarding how this relates to the budget, there is much that we can do about the input costs for construction as an island. The things that we can impact are the labour market, the skills issue and the planning system, which urgently needs to be addressed.

IBEC welcomed and is happy to see supply-side measures for housing in the budget. Additional resources need to be made available to State bodies, including An Bord Pleanála, to make sure the capacity is there to absorb some of the new planning so that we can see the significant resources going into the sector, on the demand side, actually translate into commencements and housing delivery. We would welcome the initial step to meeting some of our labour demands, particularly 3,000 new craft apprenticeships being funded this year. Neither of those steps will solve the housing crisis or put us on target for the significant housing delivery that we need in the coming years, but they are two positive steps in the right direction for supply-side measures that we noted from the budget.