Cut or axe to construction sector Vat to kickstart private house building

Michael O’Flynn, managing director of one of the largest private construction firms in the country, has called on the Government to reduce or scrap Vat in the construction sector to kickstart private house building.

Mr O’Flynn said without such drastic intervention, the country’s chronic housing shortage crisis will not be resolved.

He was speaking at the Irish Planning Institute’s annual conference in Cork, where Paudie Coffey, the housing minister, accepted that the State needs to double the rate of private house construction.