Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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80. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the way he envisages changes announced in budget 2015 will assist job retention and creation in the construction industry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40580/14]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Budget 2015 marked a move away from fiscal consolidation and saw the first increases to aggregate expenditure ceilings in six years. These increases are reflected in the Departmental expenditure ceilings (both capital and current) for the period 2015 to 2017 which are set out in the Comprehensive Expenditure Report. It is, of course, the changes to the capital budget which will have the greatest impact on the construction sector. While the primary purpose of public capital investment is the provision of infrastructure that can aid economic growth and address social requirements, the positive employment impact in the shorter term is a notable benefit.

The capital budget for 2015 is €3,549 million, an increase of €297m over the 2015 ceiling as published in the 2014 Expenditure Report. Furthermore, a €307m contingency, which formed part of the ceiling as per the Expenditure Report, was released to Departments to support expenditure in key areas. Overall, therefore, an additional €600m was allocated to Departments for spending in 2015. As the majority of this will be focused on construction the additional allocation will have a positive affect on the sector.

As the Deputy will be aware, one of the Government's main priorities in Budget 2015 was on addressing emerging Social Housing needs.  On the expenditure side, I announced an overall capital investment of €2.2bn for the housing programme over the next three years. This will comprise  €1.5bn in Exchequer investment (included in the 2015 to 2017 ceilings referred to above) along with private financing through a social housing PPP of €300m and at least €400m to be provided to the Approved Housing Bodies by way of an off-balance sheet financial vehicle. This significant level of investment will see activity in residential construction increase and will lead to additional employment for the sector. My Department estimates that approximately 10 jobs are sustained or created for each €1m invested in residential construction.

Activity in the housing sector will be further enhanced by taxation measures which my colleague, the Minister for Finance, announced in his Budget speech. These include extension of the home renovation scheme to the rental sector, full roll out of the Living Cities Initiative in 2015 and Deposit Interest Retention Tax (D.I.R.T.) refunds for first time buyers who use their savings to purchase their home. Minister Noonan also noted that the Ireland Strategic Infrastructure Fund (ISIF) is looking at ways to support financing projects that will enhance supply of housing.