Larry Butler (Fianna Fail)

Will the Leader arrange for the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy John Gormley, to come into the House and discuss not only the planning situation, but also the major problem in the construction industry? There is an opportunity, given that there is a new budget coming on stream, for us to do something in that regard.

There are 190,000 people currently employed in the construction industry. We are in danger of losing many of those jobs in the next five or six months. When we are reviewing the national development plan, which we will have to do, there will be an opportunity to put a major job creation project for the construction industry in place, which could tackle the problem over the next number of months.

I was at a meeting last night. There is no doubt the construction industry is stressed. It has already lost 100,000 people. We cannot afford to lose another 100,000 people from the construction industry or any other industry in this country to unemployment. There are already 300,000 or 400,000 people heading that way.