STAGED PAYMENTS FOR HOUSES TO GO - The practice of paying for houses in stages while they are being built is to end for new contracts in June.
'Staged payments' - unheard of in some parts of the country - have always been a fairly typical payment method in areas like Cork, Limerick, Clare and Galway.
Staged payments are where the buyer of a house in a new housing estate pays a builder in instalments for a house as the building goes up.
Their end was agreed on by the Irish Homebuilders Association, the Construction Industry Federation and the Department of the Environment, where the Junior Environment Minister Noel Ahern said he didn't want buyers, particularly first-time buyers, disadvantaged by undesirable market conditions.
These could arise when purchasers were paying the builder and paying rent at the same time.
The Construction Industry Federation's head of policy and research Dr Peter Stafford said stage payments started off to ease cash flow for smaller building companies. He said the move would affect only a small number of people.
Asked if the increase in construction employment reported yesterday was sustainable, he said the growth was spread across the country and in a variety of different activities, adding that the National Development Plan would help keep growth strong.
Mr Stafford said the repair and maintenance sector of housing was worth €4 billion a year and represented 17% of construction activity, and this was reflected in the inclusion of a number of new items in the CSO's basket of goods used to measure inflation.
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AER LINGUS WARNS ON STRIKE ACTION - Aer Lingus has warned passengers booked on flights on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday next week that there could be disruption because of a threatened strike over contracts for new employees at the airline. It has again called on SIPTU to engage in talks about new contracts at the airline. Aer Lingus says staff will be suspended if they don't co-operate in training employees recruited on new terms.
