Trade union Siptu has today called for a €5 billion package to create 75,000 construction jobs.
The call was made at the centenary conference of the union in Tralee, Co Kerry.
Speaking at the final session of the conference this afternoon, Siptu’s national construction organiser, Eric Fleming, urged the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) to join with the union in demanding an immediate injection of funds by the Government into the ailing industry.
“Unless there is an immediate injection of funds into construction there will soon be more than one hundred thousand unemployed in the sector. A stimulus package of €5 billion would create up to seventy thousand jobs and we urge the CIF to jointly lobby the Government with us for this badly needed support for the industry,” said Mr Fleming.
He also told delegates that Siptu intended to mobilise thousands of construction workers to protest for a jobs stimulus unless the Government took action itself.
“Sooner than watch the further collapse of the construction industry we intend to mobilise thousands of workers to force the Government to immediately introduce a stimulus package to create urgently needed jobs,” he said.
During his speech today Mr Fleming called for mortgage interest relief to be maintained for home owners and he also criticised the Minister for Education Batt O'Keefe over the shortfall of €112 million in this year’s school building programme.
Mr Fleming claimed it was “criminal neglect” on the part of the Minister not to have given the go-ahead to essential capital projects in the school building programme at a time when “thousands of construction workers are languishing at home without a livelihood.”
