The Construction Industry Federation has warned that up to 100,000 jobs could be lost in the sector over the next 12 months unless the Government sanctions more spending on infrastructure projects.
Director general Tom Parlon said that with private sector housing and commercial projects at a standstill, the Government infrastructure programme is the only game in town.
While the Government is set to spend €7.3 billion on infrastructure this year, most of that money is allocated to projects which are already in progress and which will soon be finished.
Mr Parlon said the big problem was that no new projects were being prepared or started, so there was nothing in the pipeline to sustain the sector in years to come.
He said that new starts this year would total only between €500m and €1 billion - which will not be enough to sustain employment over the coming years.
Mr Parlon said the National Roads Authority started 216 kilometres of new roads in 2007. In 2008, the figure was 169km, but in 2009, he said, this would fall to 5.5km of motorway. As of now, there are no plans to start any new roads in 2010, Mr Parlon said.
He said the ending of the inter-urban road project could trigger a surge of job losses in the sector, which has already lost 200,000 workers in the last two years.
Mr Parlon said there was a huge need for investment in new and refurbished schools, waste facilities, garda stations and other services.
The CIF has proposed an investment programme based on an infrastructure bond for Irish private pension funds as a means of funding new projects.
Asked about NAMA, he said the CIF was supportive of NAMA, and was anxious to see it up and running as soon as possible. But, he said the CIF did have a concern about the scale of it.
Mr Parlon said that one agency dealing with €90 billion in loans could end up having a monopoly on the property market. He said the CIF was also concerned about what he called the limbo period before NAMA starts operating. Mr Parlon said individual members were having difficulty dealing with banks - so the sooner NAMA was up and running, the better.
