Up to 10,000 jobs could go in Irish civils sector, CECA claims
15 June, 2009 | By Rhiannon Hoyle
As many as 10,000 jobs are at risk of being lost in Ireland’s construction sector in the coming year as the slowdown hits road building, the Civil Engineering Contractors Association has warned.
The group has accused the government of winding down its programme for new roads infrastructure and said that most projects currently underway would be complete by 2010, with no future schemes for workers to move on to.
CECA president Pat McCarthy told the Press Association that highly qualified and experienced workers were already being laid off at an alarming rate.
“At present up to 10,000 construction workers including machine drivers, pavers, pipe layers, engineers and other construction professionals are engaged in road building,” he said.
“All of these projects will be complete by the middle of 2010.
“Following this the workers will be unemployed and the plant and machinery will be moved to Eastern Europe.”
He said a number of promised new national roads had been shelved, including the “Atlantic Corridor” from Sligo to Waterford and the completion of the N11 from Dublin to Wexford.
Mr McCarthy claimed other smaller upgrade projects – like the N60 Castlebar to Athlone, the N80 Enniscorthy to Portlaoise as well as peninsular routes in Cork, Kerry, Clare, Galway, Mayo, Sligo and Donegal – had also been postponed.
