Trading Statement

CRH PLC
03 January 2008

          N    E    W    S                R    E    L    E    A    S    E


                                                                  3 January 2008

                    FULL YEAR 2007 TRADING UPDATE STATEMENT

CRH plc, the international building materials group, today issues this trading
statement for the year ended 31 December 2007. The Preliminary Results for 2007
are due to be announced on Tuesday 4 March 2008.

Highlights

•    CRH expects 2007 profit before tax to be close to euro 1.9 billion
     giving a high-teen percentage increase on 2006 (euro 1.602 billion) and a
     fifteenth consecutive year of profit and earnings growth.

•    Acquisition spend in the second half of 2007 amounted to euro 1.2 billion 
     resulting in a record full year acquisition spend of approximately euro
     2.2 billion.

•    2007 EBITDA/net interest cover is expected to remain high at approximately 
     9 times (2006: 9.7 times).

•    The phased reduction in dividend cover to a targeted 3.5 times for the 2008 
     financial year continues.  With a strong financial position the Board has
     decided to introduce a share repurchase programme, limited to a maximum of 
     5% of the 547 million Ordinary Shares currently in issue. CRH remains 
     committed to an active development programme while maintaining an 
     investment grade credit rating.

•    In Europe,  with a continuing strong trading performance from Materials 
     operations and good full year profit advances in Products and Distribution 
     operations CRH anticipates 2007 operating profit of approximately  
     euro 1.1 billion (2006: euro 0.814 billion).

•    The expectation is for 2007 operating profit from CRH's Americas
     activities to be approximately US$ 1.35 billion (2006: US$ 1.196 billion). 
     At the average 2007 US $/euro exchange rate this would amount to 
     approximately euro 0.985 billion (2006: euro 0.953 billion at the average 
     2006 rate).

•    While as ever there are risks, CRH is well positioned across its operations 
     to deal with the evolving market circumstances while continuing to take 
     advantage of an ongoing strong pipeline of development opportunities. With 
     a relentless emphasis on margin development through price and cost 
     effectiveness, we remain focused on our twin goals - performance and growth 
     - and on delivering a sixteenth consecutive year of profit and earnings 
     growth in 2008.

________________________________________________________________________________
This Trading Statement contains certain forward-looking statements as defined
under US legislation. By their nature, such statements involve uncertainty; as a
consequence, actual results and developments may differ from those expressed in
or implied by such statements depending on a variety of factors including the
specific factors identified in this Statement and other factors discussed in our
Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC.

CRH will host an analysts' conference call at 8.00 a.m. GMT on 3 January 2008 to
discuss this statement and the Development Strategy Update. The dial-in-number
is [phone]. A recording of the conference call will be available from
10.00 a.m. GMT on 3 January 2008 by dialling [phone]. The security code
for the replay will be 778507. A presentation to accompany this call is
available on CRH's website at www.crh.com.

________________________________________________________________________________

Contact CRH at Dublin 404 1000 ([phone])
Liam O'Mahony           Chief Executive
Myles Lee               Finance Director
Eimear O'Flynn          Head of Investor Relations
Maeve Carton            Group Controller

Profit

CRH expects to deliver another robust performance in 2007 with full year profit
before tax close to euro 1.9 billion giving a high-teen percentage increase on
2006 (euro 1.602 billion). This represents CRH's fifteenth consecutive year of
profit and earnings growth.

The expected full year profit before tax outturn is after an adverse translation
impact of approximately euro 70 million principally attributable to a weaker
average 2007 US$/euro exchange rate of 1.3705 (2006: 1.2556).

The first half of the year saw a particularly strong start in Europe
significantly outweighing more challenging conditions in the Americas resulting
in a euro 144 million increase in profit before tax to euro 670 million (2006:
euro 526 million).

The second half has seen underlying profit growth in both Europe and the
Americas complemented by the benefits of CRH's active development programme. As
a result, despite a more significant adverse exchange translation impact, the
second half of the year is expected to show similar profit growth in euro terms
to that reported for the six months to June resulting in profit before tax for
the period of over euro 1.2 billion (2006: euro 1.076 billion).

We anticipate that the 2007 profit before tax outcome will reflect an increase
in profit on disposal of fixed assets (2006: euro 40 million) and in the Group's
share of associates' profit after tax (2006: euro 47 million).

Development

Total acquisition spend in 2007 amounted to approximately euro 2.2 billion, a
new record for CRH. First half expenditure of euro 1 billion comprised the
acquisition of Swiss builders merchant Getaz Romang completed in May; the
purchase of a 50% stake in Denizli Cement in Turkey and the buyout of the
remaining 50% of Paver Systems in the US announced in April; the acquisition of
Harbin Sanling Cement Company in China announced in February plus 31 other
initiatives announced in the Development Strategy Update of 2 July. Second half
spending of euro 1.2 billion included the August buyout of the remaining 55% of
Cementbouw BV in the Netherlands; completion of four separate transactions by
the Americas Materials Division as announced in September; the purchase of
certain Cemex assets in Florida and Arizona announced in late November plus a
strong flow of traditional CRH development opportunities outlined in the
Development Strategy Update released today.

In addition during the year we commenced three major cement projects in Ireland,
Poland and Ukraine . These combined with ongoing construction of our joint
venture cement plant in Florida represent a total investment over three years of
approximately euro 0.7 billion targeted at modernising and expanding cement
production in three key European markets and providing CRH's first investment in
US cement.

Financial

While the significant 2007 development spend and higher interest rates will
result in an increase in net finance costs compared with 2006 (euro 252
million), with continuing robust cash generation  EBITDA/net interest cover for
the year is expected to remain high at approximately 9 times (2006: 9.7 times).
CRH remains very well positioned to take advantage of a strong pipeline of
development opportunities while continuing its phased reduction in dividend
cover to a targeted 3.5 times for the 2008 financial year.  In addition, the
Board has decided to introduce a share repurchase programme. This programme will
be limited to a maximum of 5% of the 547 million Ordinary Shares currently in
issue. CRH remains committed to an active development programme while
maintaining an investment grade credit rating.

Europe Materials

Following a significant advance in first half operating profit, Europe Materials
has continued to perform strongly in the second half. Our operations in Central/
Eastern Europe were particularly busy, while overall construction activity in
Ireland continued at a high level as infrastructure and non-residential
construction offset the ongoing decline in residential activity. Overall, we
anticipate full year 2007 operating profit of the order of euro 0.6 billion,
which would represent an increase of approximately 40% compared with the 2006
outturn of euro 0.421 billion.

Europe Products

These operations delivered a marked improvement in operating profit and a
significant margin advance in the first half of the year. The second half of
2007 has seen a slower pace of demand growth in core Mainland European markets,
most particularly in Germany. Nevertheless, we expect full year operating profit
to exceed euro 0.3 billion (2006: euro 0.221 billion).

Europe Distribution

Our Distribution activities delivered a much improved performance in the six
months to June. Although like-for-like progress relative to last year was slower
in the second half, the Getaz Romang builders merchanting business in
Switzerland , acquired in May, has delivered a strong performance. Our current
expectation is for full year operating profit from Distribution operations of
approximately euro 0.2 billion (2006: euro 0.172 billion).

Europe Overall

With a continuing strong trading performance from our Materials operations and
good full year profit advances in our Products and Distribution operations we
expect 2007 European operating profit of approximately euro 1.1 billion (2006:
euro 0.814 billion).

Americas Materials

Good price improvements and ongoing cost reductions have contributed to improved
margins and a strong full year organic operating profit improvement against an
industry-wide backdrop of lower like-for-like volumes. This combined with an
excellent performance from APAC, which was acquired at end-August 2006, is
anticipated to result in full year operating profit comfortably in excess of US$
0.75 billion (2006: US$ 0.596 billion).

Americas Products

Our Americas Products activities delivered a resilient performance through the
first half of 2007 with growth in non-residential construction and profit
improvement measures broadly offsetting the impact of a sharp decline in
residential construction. These businesses have continued to perform robustly
and, despite the continuing turbulent backdrop in financial and housing markets,
we currently expect that full year operating profit will be only slightly below
the record 2006 outcome of $0.47 billion. This would represent a very
satisfactory outcome in tough circumstances.

Americas Distribution

Like-for-like trading comparisons for the second half of the year improved
somewhat compared with the first half and we currently anticipate that the full
year operating profit margin generated by these activities will be in the 5% -
5.5% range indicated when announcing our Interim results in late-August. This is
expected to result in operating profit of the order of US$ 0.1 billion (2006:
US$ 0.13 billion).

Americas Overall

Our expectation is for full year operating profit from our Americas activities
of approximately US$ 1.35 billion (2006: US$ 1.196 billion). At the average 2007
US $/euro exchange this would amount to approximately euro 0.985 billion (2006:
euro 0.953 billion at the average 2006 rate).

Outlook

Current forecasts for 2008 point to continuing economic growth in our main
markets, although at a slower pace than in 2007. Against this background,
organic growth in our European activities remains well underpinned by a
continuing strong dynamic in central and eastern countries together with
moderate progress expected in the broader Eurozone. These operations will
further benefit in 2008 from the euro 1 billion of acquisition activity
undertaken during 2007. In the Americas, our US residential operations face
another testing year but we expect that our non-residential and infrastructure
businesses will continue to perform well. Our goal is to broadly maintain
like-for-like US profitability through our balanced exposure to the US
residential, non-residential and infrastructure sectors, while delivering
expected returns from the euro 1.2 billion of acquisitions completed in the
Americas during 2007.

While as ever there are risks, CRH is well positioned across its operations to
deal with the evolving market circumstances while continuing to take advantage
of an ongoing strong pipeline of development opportunities. With a relentless
emphasis on margin development through price and cost effectiveness,  we remain
focused on our twin goals - performance and growth - and on delivering a
sixteenth consecutive year of profit and earnings growth in 2008.



                                 *  *  *  *  *

       CRH plc, Belgard Castle , Clondalkin, Dublin 22, Ireland TELEPHONE
                       +353.1.4041000 FAX [phone]

E-MAIL [e-mail] WEBSITE www.crh.com Registered Office, 42 Fitzwilliam Square
                              , Dublin 2, Ireland




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