asked the Minister for Local Government the number of persons employed in the building industry in April, 1975 and in April, 1973; if he regards this industry as being in a satisfactory condition; and if he will make a statement in the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Building Industry.
47.
Statistics of employment in the private sector of the building and construction industry are published on a monthly basis by the Central Statistics Office. The latest figures available relate to March, 1975, and show that the number of persons then employed was 57,273. The corresponding figure for March, 1973, was 60,436. Figures of the number of persons employed in the public sector of the industry are not available.
The overall position is that the industry is bearing up well notwithstanding the present world-wide economic difficulties. The industry has benefited from the positive steps taken by the Government to maintain employment. In the nine-month period April to December, 1974, a total of £189 million, equivalent to about £240 million in a full year, was provided in the public capital programme to generate work for the industry and, in 1975, the corresponding provision was increased to over £300 million.
In particular, the housing programme, which accounts for approximately 40 per cent of the overall output of the building industry, has been given substantial financial support. The 1975 public capital programme includes over £100 million for housing in the current year, which is more than double the amount of £46.2 million provided in 1972-73.
Furthermore, the subsidy for building societies, introduced by the Government in May, 1973, to encourage a higher level of savings with the societies, has had the desired effect of attracting additional funds for investment in housing.
The Minister read the figures for 1973 and for 1975 in a low voice. Will he repeat them, please?
The number in March, 1975 was 57,273 and for March, 1973 it was 60,436.
On numerous occasions the Minister has stated there are more persons employed in the house building industry now than when Fianna Fáil were in office. Will he withdraw that statement?
The Deputy has not got the message yet. The figures of the number of persons employed in the public sector of the industry are not available. The Deputy asked for one figure and he got it. He can play around with it for the rest of the week if he wishes but he will not alter the situation which is that more houses have been built in the last 12 months than even in the previous record year.
Is the Minister aware that the statistics compiled by his Department do not reflect the exact number of houses that reached final completion stage of construction in the past year? The figure only records the final payments of new house grants which can and often have been related to houses which were built months and years previous to the date those houses are recorded in the housing statistics. People in the house building industry, and particularly their representative organisation, the Construction Industry Federation, have continuously denied the claim that the Minister has made that these figures relate to housing output in the previous year. Would the Minister once and for all stop the bluffing?
The Deputy is making a statement.
The number of persons employed in the industry has dropped. Activity in the house building industry has fallen off miserably and some of the finest craftsmen in the country are today walking the streets with their hands in their pockets and cannot get jobs. They are blocklayers, carpenters——
The Deputy is making a statement.
——plumbers, electricians. They are all standing idle at the corners of towns throughout the country.
Question No. 48.
This is the result of the housing policy that has been followed by the Coalition and particularly pushed by the Minister who has depressed the private house building industry deliberately and put thousands of people out of jobs— 6,000 in the last 12 months.
Would the Deputy allow questions to continue? Question No. 48.
Would the Minister agree that if 3,000 fewer workers in the building industry are capable, according to him, of producing more houses, somewhere along the line a fantastic and incredible increase in productivity must have taken place and would he disclose to the world at large this fantastic new method of increasing productivity which apparently has taken place in the Irish house building industry?
I am not a bit surprised at Deputy Molloy being unable to understand statistics. It was always his weakness. Deputy Haughey has not got the same weakness and he should be able to understand that if the figures given do not include the persons employed in the public sector of the industry and since the public sector has shown a remarkable increase in output what he has said is rather ridiculous. With regard to the question of the erection of houses and how they are counted, Deputy Molloy is aware that the statistics being used now and the method being used now are exactly the same as were used for 12 years by Fianna Fáil before I took office. If they are wrong now they were wrong then but Fianna Fáil found nothing wrong with them. I do not care how many times people like Deputy Molloy who cannot accept facts say that the houses were not built. All anybody has to do is to go through the country and look at them. They are there to see. An extra 26,000 odd this year, not 25,000.
Statistics.
The statistics have the Deputy bogged down.