Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 205: To ask the Minister for Finance the amount of the economy here in terms of output and employment that was dependent on the construction industry each year since 2000 to date in 2008; and the comparative information for the EU and USA. [34006/08]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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Given that the Deputy has asked for data going back to 2000 i.e. before the recent enlargements of the EU, the data published by Eurostat for the EU 15 over the period in question is used in order to provide a comparable set of data. It should be noted that the data for the contribution of construction to output is published by Eurostat on a Gross Value Added (GVA) basis and not as a proportion of GDP. Also, figures for 2008 have not yet been published. Therefore Table 1 sets out the figures for construction and employment in the EU 15 with the equivalent figures for Ireland also shown.

In relation to the US, output data relates to the construction sector, which like the Eurostat figures, is provided on a value added basis. However, the published employment data for the US do not separate out construction, but combine it in a category called "Construction and Extraction" and as such are not as readily comparable with the Irish and European data. It is this aggregate data which is contained in Table 2.