andMr. Keaveney asked the Minister for Finance if he will indicate, in respect of each Department (i) the approximate amount of money required to fund all construction-type proposals now on hand and at advanced planning stages and (ii) the approximate total additional jobs that would be created directly and indirectly if sufficient money was available to proceed with all such proposals.
Written Answers. - Building and Construction.
100.
It is impossible to define with precision what is meant by the phrase in the Deputy's question "construction-type proposals now on hand and at advanced planning stages". Moreover, the prospective availability of resources would normally have a major influence on the pace at which the planning of projects is progressed towards completion. It can, however, be said in general that in so far as public works are concerned the proposals which are at an advanced planning stage are those which are provided for in the expenditure allocations for 1977.
When account is taken of the conditional job-creation package which I announced in my budget statement, the total provision in the 1977 capital programme affecting the building and construction industry is expected to show an increase of about £55 million or 19 per cent compared to 1976. Much of the work of the industry is commissioned and funded from private sources. Taking more money from these sources by taxation, borrowing or otherwise to fund public works will not in the longer term necessarily raise the total output of the industry or increase the amount of self-sustaining employment which it can provide.
In view of the answer to the first part of the question, the second part does not arise.