It also appears unlikely that the group will sell its Naas Road site, which is conservatively valued at 100m, in the near future.

Sources said that the firm operated a particularly busy branch of Heitons there, which would have to be relocated to a suitable site nearby. The process involved in selling the site is likely to take several years.

Last week, one of Grafton's rivals Wolseley, which owns Brooks, Ireland's thirdlargest builders' merchant, warned analysts in London that it believed that Irish housing completions would fall by up to 30% this year.

However, it is understood that Grafton believes that this is too pessimistic and that completions should be around 80,000 this year.

Analysts have suggested that, in the event of a downturn, Grafton could cushion the blow to its business by selling some of its property assets, which some claim could net the firm up to 200m over the next two years.

"They have a number of merchanting sites which are located very close together, which would present a nice opportunity to remove capacity from the market and exploit the property angle, " said Flor O'Donoghue, an analyst with Davy Stockbrokers.

He said, however, it was unlikely that Grafton would engage in widespread sales.

O'Donoghue said that while Grafton was one of the players most exposed to the Irish new homes market, only 1618% of its earnings came from that market.

He added that it was likely that in the event of the slowdown, Grafton would benefit from the expansion of the repair, maintenance and improvement (RMI) sector.

The company's chief operating officer Leo Martin alluded to this when the firm announced its results last month.

Sources close to the company also said that it was likely that it would benefit from the construction element of the new National Development Plan, which see the government spent 184bn on development projects over the next six years.