Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 28 March 2017

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

Review of the Capital Plan: Construction Industry Federation

4:00 pm

Mr. Hubert Fitzpatrick:

There can certainly be confusion there. Many of the 15,000 units might have started a number of years ago and been mothballed during the recession. That is where one is not talking about real construction activity. The current process of counting electricity connections is as good a record as one can have in respect of actual completions whereby units are ready for occupation. The point made by Lorcan Sirr is that this entailed the final occupation of a number of houses that were half built and were mothballed during the recession. As such, real construction activity did not take place on the entire 15,000 units during the past year.