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
AN ECONOMIC disaster could be just weeks away for Clare with reports indicating that as many as 3,000 builders face redundancy later debhwpesreyniaee
A leading representative of the Clare construction industry claims that hundreds have already left the industry, with a return to mass emi- eration of the 1970s and 80s already
underway.
Fears are now growing that a mass lay-off will take place following the builders’ holiday later this month, with a numbers of contractors be- lieved to be holding off until the holiday in the hope of an upsurge in the market.
The two-week annual holiday be- gins on July 27, a date which sections within the construction industry have already dubbed ‘Black Friday’.
“The only thing that is keeping us going at her moment is houses out in the country. There is nothing at all going on in the towns. Traditional places where there would be build- ing like Kilkee and Lahinch are just dead. The building has stopped,” said Paddy Kenneally, head of the Clare Plasters Union.
‘There is a lot of employment out there at the moment, it’s easy to get a plasterer in Clare at the moment.
People are ringing me up all the time looking for work and I don’t have much to tell them.
“A lot of plasterers are just leaving the trade and going to work in facto- ries or whatever they can get. There are quite of few who have emigrated already, especially from the Shannon area.”
It 1s believed that 30 per cent of Clare’s estimated 11,000 to 13,000 construction workers could be let go this year.
One of the companies believed to be preparing to cut numbers after the builders holidays is McInerney Con- struction, which was formed in Clare almost 100 years ago and has bases in a number of EU countries.
“We have heard that McInerney Construction and a number of the other big companies will be laying a lot of people off. The builders will be paid their two weeks of holiday mon- ey and they won’t be taken back,” continued Mr Kenneally.
‘There is a huge fall off all over Ire- land, we are down at least 30 per cent in Clare since the beginning of the year. A surplus of houses has been created and the fact is that people can’t sell them.
“I can’t see anyway out of this, un- less we go back to the old days when we are building council houses all the time.”