What will be left when building boom slows?

I HAVE written several times about my puzzlement at the fact that the Irish economy is still standing. Nothing seems to be happening except construction.

That was obviously why there was so much politically-assisted corruption in the planning area - but it still doesn’t explain why they were building with such rapidity and determination in a marketplace that was losing jobs (and therefore mortgage payers) at a rate of about 500 a week.

Then earlier this week I read that around 250 people with incomes between €100,000 and €1m paid no tax at all in 2002. The major reason was massive and flexible deductions allowed for investment in property.