The Director of the Construction Industry Federation in the Midlands and West says he doesn’t believe the government has thought out the long term implications of the 10% concrete levy.
Justin Molloy was commenting on the surprise announcement of the levy to meet the costs of the mica redress scheme during yesterday’s budget.
The levy is due to come in next April on pouring concrete, as well as concrete blocks.
It’s not yet know if the levy will apply to precast products, and if it does, then Irish companies who export pieces for bridges and tunnels could be put at a competitive disadvantage.
Speaking on the Let's Talk show today the CIF Director says the sector can’t afford to absorb the costs of all the recent rises and this will impact negative on house building.
One of the biggest issues we have in the industry now at the moment is materials inflation and the impact it's having on the cost of construction.
We have increases over the last 12 months, of on average about 17% on materials but if you look at steel it's gone up 64% , timber went up 46%, concrete products which the levy is going on in April , that already went up 10% this month.
It's likely to go up another 10% in January , and now with the levy it'll go up a further 10% in April ,and we don't know what's going to happen after that.
