The housing market is currently inhibiting the performance of Ireland's competitiveness, the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council is warning.
"It is also a capacity constraint representing a risk to Ireland’s international competitiveness, albeit that this is a concern across many advanced economies." The bulletin also states that close attention has to be given to the competing demands for labour across the construction sector and, in particular the impact this has on younger people competing in the housing market.
"The consequent impact – via both upward wage pressures and staffing challenges – present particular difficulties for the domestic SME sector," it claims. "In the longer-term, it is therefore critical that we also increase emphasis on other solutions, such as ramping up the adoption of MMC and engaging more of our domestic workforce in construction."