08 Digger, one careful owner ... It's a sign of the times when the biggest auctions these days are of builder's machinery. Ganly Craigie is holding an auction today at its offices in Naas, Co Kildare which has a selection of dumpers, rollers, jaw crushers, teleporters, trucks, bulldozers, impactors, excavators and even Landcruiser jeeps.

The sale is on behalf of Government bodies, local authorities "and other clients" - so it appears just about every sector in construction industry is offloading equipment. But with the market so depressed here, who will be buying?

A spokesperson for Ganly Craigie said that, at a similar sale five weeks ago, around 44 per cent of buyers were from countries like Russia, Poland, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Belgium and Holland. There were also big buyers from the UK. Ganly Craigie says this time around there are fewer Russians as their property market has slowed, but they've had a few Africans fly in for the auction, as well as Latvians, Romanians and Belgians, and they are expecting a good turnout of Dutch buyers.

And who are the Irish buyers? "Basically the ones that weren't greedy when things were good," said the spokesperson. He knows of one company that outsourced their machinery and brought in sub-contractors during the boom but are now doing everything in-house to cut costs and have started buying their own machinery. And will there be bargains? Yes, says Ganly Craigie. Some 08 machinery being sold that cost €90,000 three months ago may sell for €50,000 tomorrow.