Are Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland struggling to afford the best-quality candidates? That is certainly the view they conveyed recently to Peter Burke, the Minister for Enterprise.
The information came in response to a parliamentary question from Robert Troy, the Fianna Fáil TD for Longford–Westmeath, who asked how many outstanding vacancies there were at the agencies which form the twin pillars of Irish industrial policy.
According to Burke, Enterprise Ireland currently has 94.5 full-time equivalent posts vacant, all of which are “at varying stages in the recruitment process” with some ready to be filled. “Most of these vacancies are progressing without challenges,” Burke said in his response.
The IDA, meanwhile, had fewer vacancies at 30, though it seemed to be facing stiffer challenges, since many roles took more than six months to fill, Burke said. The IDA’s process is to advertise a role internally for two to three months. If no suitable candidate is found, they then seek external candidates, which can “[extend] the time frame to six months or more if the initial recruitment process is not successful”.
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What were the challenges? According to Burke, some of it was down to the fact that the roles are “very specialist in nature and there is a scarcity of available resources in the market”, by which he meant qualified people, presumably.
But there was also the issue of compensation, with the packages provided by both agencies – the packages they were allowed to offer, that is – “sometimes not competitive, which can result in low application numbers or successful candidates not accepting the offer of the role”.
It’s not the first time either agency has complained about struggling to hire staff. As The Irish Times reported earlier this year, Enterprise Ireland recently told the Government it was missing out on highly qualified staff because of bureaucratic slowness – but it is perhaps a surprise to hear it complaining about its ability to hire because of its salary offers.
Enterprise Ireland’s most recent annual report shows that it had remuneration and other pay costs of €66.7 million in 2022, up from €64.8 million the year before for its roughly 750 employees. That included €55.6 million in salaries, before overtime, allowances, pension contributions, board members emoluments, travel expenses and other staff related costs.
The annual report also shows that of its total staff complement, more than 100 earned between €90,000 and €99,999 – that is one in seven. More broadly, more than a third of its employees earned between €90,000 and €210,000.
The IDA, meanwhile, had 95 employees – nearly a third of its roughly 340 total – who earned more than €90,000 a year in 2023.
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