Building boss: I ‘misspoke’ over price rise
THE head of the Construction Industry Federation has said he “misspoke” when he claimed new safety measures put in place across large complex construction sites could increase costs by up to 40%.
Director general Tom Parlon claimed infrastructure projects including the National Children’s Hospital could see costs rise further.
He was speaking at the special Covid-19 Oireachtas committee on Tuesday and added the new protocols could see additional costs of 5% to 10% on new houses.
Speaking to Today With Sarah Mcinerney on RTE Radio One yesterday he said: “I sort of misspoke and what I meant to say was that productivity will be reduced or could be reduced by up to 40% on those complex building projects.
“Certainly I was disappointed with the commentary and of course, I said it and I listened back to it .... It wasn’t my intention to give that reflection.
“I don’t think there’s any likelihood of anything as mad as a 40% rise in costs [for the National Children’s Hospital].
“Productivity certainly will be impacted but this day a week ago the construction industry didn’t even know we were going back to work, we had to wait until about 4pm for the Taoiseach’s announcement.”
Pressed as to why he repeated the 40% figure during the meeting, and did not clarify it since Tuesday, he said: “At an earlier stage, I talked about an actual price increase and I suggested that house prices would go up by between €10,000 to €15,000, so that percentage would be 2% to 5% so there was a little bit of a mix-up there and I didn’t clarify the situation and I’m very happy to clarify it now.”