Irish market continues recovery

The recovery of the Irish construction industry is continuing with volume of output in building and construction increasing by 1.3% in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared with the preceding three months, according to the country’s Central Statistics Office (CSO).

It said that the figures reflected increases of 8.8% in the volume of civil engineering, and 7.0% in non-residential building work.

However, the volume of residential building work decreased by 1.9%. The CSO said that as a result of the unprecedented low base this series was starting from, it would continue to monitor the quality and comparability of this new data series.

In the third quarter of 2015, the volume of residential work had been down 1.7% compared with the second quarter, when a 15.2% rise had been reported over the previous period.

The CSO said the value of production for all building and construction in the fourth quarter of 2015 showed an increase of 3.5% over the previous quarter.

On an annual basis, the volume of output in building and construction increased by 9.5% in the fourth quarter of 2015, while there was an increase of 10.1% in the value of production compared to the same period a year earlier.

The volume of output in the different sectors recorded increases of 12.5% in residential building work, 9.1% in non-residential building work, and 6.2% in civil engineering, compared to the fourth quarter of 2014.