New house completions fell by 20 per cent in the £6.2 billion (€7.87 billion) private housing sector in the first five months of this year.

Objections to social housing, restrictions under the new Planning Act, problems with the planning process and the slowdown, however slight, in the economy generally are the main reasons for this, according to Mr Ciaran Ryan, director of the Irish Home Builders' Association, which is part of the Construction Industry Federation.

House buyers, he says, do not want to be beside social housing. "If you're shelling out a lot of money, you have every reason to be concerned. Builders would have no problems about social housing if the buyers didn't. Where builders have reached agreement with local authorities to provide social housing, people in private estates have objected to Bord Pleanala about their inclusion," he adds. While there are 47,000 people on housing lists nationally, he says nine-tenths have incomes under £10,000 and would not be trying to buy.

Mr Ryan says confidence in the planning area has been eroded. One of the proposals in the new Planning Act, to limit the life of a planning permission to two years instead of the previous five, has had a major impact, he says. It is not unusual for preparation of a site and installation of services to take up to a year before foundations are sunk. "Now he [a builder] has 12 months to get houses up to roof stage and that is very difficult to achieve. If not, he has to go in with a new application.

"In addition, planners are saying there aren't enough planners. I know they are under pressure but it's taking a long time to get an application through. Builders are very worried about that.

"The Minister has said we are foolish to raise this because it doesn't arise for two years, but anyone in business is going to look forward two years," he says.

The downturn in completions is most noticeable in the main urban areas. "To the end of May, the figures show that there have been 13,292 houses registered [started]. In 2000, in the same period, it was 16,474. To put it in perspective, it was 13,572 in 1999 and 13,240 in 1998.

"Cork is back by 39 per cent, Dublin by 19 per cent, Galway by 29 per cent, Limerick is down by 41 per cent and Waterford by 37 per cent. "Wicklow is up by 72 per cent, but that amounts to 220 houses." He said houses in Longford would be up from three houses last year to 51.

The effect on west coast counties reflects the reluctance of people to build second or holiday homes after the Government announced a 9 per cent stamp duty and 2 per cent speculative tax on them. The Government's "Uturn" would not bring things back in the current year.