The Construction Industry Federation (CIF) is to discuss major issues facing the construction industry ahead of the Budget in October with the Department of Finance.

The CIF will also highlight specific measures that the Government can take to increase activity in the construction sector.

The CIF delegation will include CIF Director General Tom Parlon, CIF Director of Housing Hubert Fitzpatrick, Dominic Doheny, CIF Vice-President, and several CIF Executive Board Members.

CIF Director General Tom Parlon said: "Although the industry is beginning to see strong growth in terms of output and of employment, with the latest CSO figures showing almost 126,000 people employed in our sector, we are still a long way off where the industry needs to be. The Government must ensure that they deliver a programme of growth for our industry, as set out under the Construction 2020 policy document. This will enable builders to build, renters to rent, and purchasers to purchase. A very simple, yet effective example of how to do this would be to introduce a 'help to buy' scheme for first time buyers, similar to the UK model.

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"We are also eagerly awaiting the announcement by Government of its five-year spending plan on capital projects, which has been discussed by the Economic Management Council on 16th September. This is of huge importance to our industry because in previous times, public spending represented about 50% of the activity in our sector. Thankfully the 2014 budget saw a reversal of the trend in cutbacks on public spending on capital projects, and we hope budget set aside for construction and social housing related projects will be ring-fenced in the upcoming announcement."

(CD/LM)