Patrick Costello, TD for Dublin South Central, was today speaking in relation to the ongoing public consultation on the occupations included on the critical skills list set by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

He began, “It is no secret that Ireland is in the midst of a housing crisis. One issue cited frequently is that of building capacity. We only have a finite number of workers in the sector. As well as building new houses they are also involved in retrofitting which is essential for us to meet our climate targets. We are paper thin on workers and the building sector has reached capacity at this point.”

He continued, “Just last week the President of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland said that Ireland would need an additional 100,000 workers in the sector to meet our retrofitting and home completion targets. This is backed up by the fact that currently there are circa 127,000 workers in the construction sector, at the height of the boom there were 230,000.”

He concluded, “We have long recognised in health that we have a crisis in our hospital system. It is right and correct that medical professionals are included on our critical skills list. But we also have a crisis in housing. I am calling for the Department to recognise this fact and include tradespeople and general labourers on the critical skills list. If we are to solve the housing crisis we need to think outside the box.”

ENDS

Public consultation: https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/consultations/public-consultation-review-of-occupations-lists-2023.html