This article is from page 4 of the 2007-07-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
yesterday that the
worst could still be ahead for the in- dustry.
With building contractors plan-
ning projects two years in advance,
he believes that a real collapse in the
industry could take place in Octo- ber 2008 unless corrective action is Cote
“The problem goes back to last Oc- tober and the stamp duty. McDowell opened up a big debate and people began to realise it 1s an unjust tax,” said Mr O’Reilly.
‘He took the genie out of the bot- tle. The situation has been resolved for first time buyers but not for the rest of the market and there has been stagnation in the market for the last nine months.
“Builders plan two year in advance
and how could they think about start- ing projects with the uncertainty in the market from last October. It has been a soft landing so far, prices haven’t dropped too much except in the higher end but there is a ticking time bomb there for October 2008 if the stamp duty situation is not sorted out quickly.”
Meanwhile, Ulster Banks chief economist, Pat McArdle, has pre- dicted that 30,000 jobs will go in the construction industry nationwide be- fore the end of 2009. If this proves to be the case, between 1200 and
1500 Clare builders will be forced to leave the industry over the next 2 to 3 years.
Speaking at an economic briefing last Friday, McArdle also predicted that the unemployment rate would erow to more than 5 per cent before the end of 2008.
However, McArdle also predicted that the Irish economy would con- tinue to grow over the next two years and that European Central Bank (ECB) would only increase interest rates once more in the foreseeable JULRU Ken