The Minister for Finance has expressed concern that the very high increases in construction industry wages could put pressure on the economy generally.

Mr McCreevy, in reply to a written question from Mr Richard Bruton (FG, Dublin North Central), said wages in the construction industry had been rising much faster than those in other sectors.

The 19.1 per cent increase reported by the Central Statistics Office for 1997 included a 14.1 per cent rise in the hourly rate and a 4.5 per cent rise in the numbers of hours worked. CSO figures for other industrial weekly earnings showed an increase of just 4.1 per cent to September 1997.