The Construction Industry Federation (CIF) has called on the Irish Government to make job retention and development a primary goal of its four-year budgetary policy.

Speaking at the publication of the federation's pre-Budget submission, the Director-General Tom Parlon said: "The Government’s fiscal consolidation targets for the next 4 years won’t be achieved without economic and employment growth. If this is to be achieved, the Government has to protect productive spending in the Budget.

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"The Capital Investment Programme is particularly crucial in this regard. Cutting capital investment again will only serve to further depress economic activity and as has been illustrated over the past two years, put more pressure on the Exchequer as a result of further unemployment. Cutting productive investment is a false economy."

Mr Parlon continued: "There are a range of measures that the Minister can introduce, at no cost to the Exchequer, to help support the economy. A good example is stamp duty. Persisting with a high transaction tax when there are no transactions makes no sense, either from the economy’s or the Exchequer’s perspective."

"Introducing a 0 per cent stamp duty rate may encourage more interest in commercial and residential property transactions and therefore generate additional incomes for the State," he added.

(GK)