Building industry facing tough times

TWO sets of figures were released yesterday that show a buoyant building industry is facing difficult times with a significant fall-off in the number of planning permissions being granted for new houses.

A report from the Central Statistics Office showed that last year wages in construction grew across all sectors and the average worker was putting in more than 44 hours a week.

However, in the second quarter of this year the number of houses granted planning permission dropped 33% relative to last year, which the industry says will lead to a dearth of projects in a couple of years time.