Nervousness in the construction industry about the use of innovative techniques to build housing faster has been blamed for the partial failure of a Dublin Corporation initiative in the Cherry Orchard area, west of the city.
Because of the scarcity of bricklayers and others involved in "wet trades", the corporation sought to make land available for housing of high quality and density that would make use of building systems, including prefabrication.
But some of the developers who tendered for the contracts, involving 1,000 new homes, had to eliminate their preferred systems after they had been denied approval under the construction industry's Homebond insurance scheme.
Mr John Fitzgerald, the Dublin city manager, said the use of systems such as timber-frame construction and pre-cast panelling would produce time savings of up to 30 per cent and, along with higher densities, the houses would be 20 per cent cheaper.
He said there was "still a sense of nervousness and uncertainty in the industry and perhaps also in the local government sector about the long-term future of these initiatives". Similar systems are used elsewhere in Europe.
