The 120-year-old Co-operative Society in Templecrone, Co Donegal, has a pile of construction materials gathering dust in its warehouse. Mark Sharkey, chief executive of the Co-operative, says numerous orders are on ice while contractors search for workers to complete the construction of local houses and offices.
“I think we have a dozen rooves ready to go but there’s no tradesmen available to put them up,” says Sharkey. “There’s no roofers, no plasterers, no block layers. Talking to other businesses, there’s real frustration because it’s holding back the industry.”
The lack of tradespeople in the construction market should be “declared a national emergency, because it is a national emergency”, Sharkey says. “We’re apolitical but there needs to be some leadership shown here.”
Kevin McHugh, senior project manager of the CCP limited construction company in Donegal, says Irish construction workers under the age of 30 have become “a rare breed”.
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“The skills shortage dates back to the bank collapse in 2008 – careers offices stopped apprenticeships, which discouraged people from going into construction,” says McHugh.
“The colleges are now flooded with apprenticeships but it’s going to be years before these people are available, it’s too little too late. There’s no one there under 30. I have one guy and he’s the youngest at 42 – the boys joke he has a spring in his step.”
Sharkey and McHugh are two of a growing number of Irish construction business owners struggling to find tradespeople to complete housing and retrofitting projects.
A recent report from the ODI international think tank, into how immigration policy can help solve workforce challenges, warned that the State was facing an “immense challenge” in meeting national retrofitting and housing targets. This is because of the “substantial” lack of plumbers, electricians, carpenters and insulation operatives.
Between 30,000 to 60,000 tradespeople are needed to meet the Government’s target of retrofitting 500,000 homes and installing 400,000 heat pumps in existing homes by the end of 2030, according to the report which was published last year. To meet these objectives, Ireland must attract more non-European workers to come here, it advises.
Migrant workers are now “driving increases” in the Irish construction workforce and “all evidence points to a future increasing reliance on migrant construction workers from non-EU countries”, says the report.
Brazilians are gaining access to the construction sector through student visas, while some firms go directly to direct provision centres to recruit international protection applicants, it adds. There is also “anecdotal evidence” that Georgian asylum seekers are taking up working on construction sites soon after they arrive in Ireland.
The report acknowledges most workers from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) are now eligible to apply to come to Ireland through the general employment permit, but warns smaller Irish firms, which “dominate” the construction sector, struggle to use this system “given their low administrative capacity”.
The Government should put all construction occupations on its critical skills visa list to attract non-European workers to Ireland, or create an enhanced general employment permit so workers can bring immediate family here without delay, the report recommends. At present, non-EEA tradespeople who come to Ireland through this permit must wait a year before bringing family.
Martin Markey, chief executive of Hardware Association Ireland (HAI), which represents those selling building materials, echoed this call last October when he wrote to the Minister for Enterprise requesting the addition of “plumbers, carpenters/joiners, electricians, tilers and brick/block layers” to the Government’s critical skills occupations list.
Over 90 per cent of our members say building projects are being postponed or abandoned due to a shortage of tradespeople
— Martin Markey
“Our marketplace is flat – the first six months of this year shows 0 per cent growth compared to 2023,” wrote Markey in a letter released to The Irish Times under a Freedom of Information request.
“We all know that there is a huge level of pent-up demand for housing... these homes can only be built when we have people with the requisite skills to build them. We need to encourage trained people from abroad to help us build the country.”
Speaking with The Irish Times, Markey agrees that small businesses struggle to navigate the general permit system for hiring staff from abroad. He said: “Even if you do find someone from Georgia to work on a site, you then have to find them a home. And there’s no homes.
“Over 90 per cent of our members say building projects are being postponed or abandoned due to a shortage of tradespeople. Without a core of tradespeople, who‘s going to build the houses? There’s no standing army of unemployed plumbers or carpenters. You can have all the targets you like but without people to build homes, it won’t happen.”
Data from the Department of Further and Higher Education shows the registration of apprentice plumbers remains “well below” what is needed to meet housing and retrofitting targets. Some 792 plumbing, heating and ventilation engineers registered for apprenticeship programmes in 2022, far below the 1,342 required to meet demand.
Current numbers are “broadly sufficient” to meet the requirements of “either the house-building subsector or the home retrofitting subsector, but not both”, according to the department’s forecast of skills analysis from October, 2024 . It also warned of “very few plumbers being attracted to Ireland under the work permit schemes”.
Claire Kumar, senior research fellow with the ODI think tank, and co-author of last year’s report, says the Government’s visa permit system is too focused on highly-skilled degree holders and “does not recognise the critical technical skills” of construction workers. “The statement we’ve heard most often is ‘we must maintain the integrity of the immigration system‘,” says Kumar. “It’s polite code for reinforcing a classist immigration system.”
I don’t think it’s correct to say we don’t have visa pathways
— Ángel Bello-Cortés
After the 2004 EU expansion, Ireland’s construction industry had “workers on tap with labour mobility”, she says. “Everything has shifted now.”
“Making your visa more attractive does make attracting talent easier. These are mid-skilled professionals, not young men happy to travel alone. They want to bring their families here.”
A spokesman for the Department of Justice said the critical skills list “reflects specific roles deemed to be critically important to the economy and in significant shortage of supply in the labour market”. The department’s policy document for non-EEA family reunification is currently under review, he added.
Ángel Bello-Cortés, a partner with Fragomen, who specialises in immigration matters, says Ireland’s work permit system is “internationally respected”. However, he acknowledges the creation of a “sector-specific work permit” would help bring more tradespeople here. “I don’t think it’s correct to say we don’t have visa pathways, but is the construction industry sufficiently engaging with the existing pathways?”
[ Ireland’s housing perma-crisis returns to centre of political agendaOpens in new window ]
A Department of Enterprise spokesman said “almost all construction sector roles” were now eligible for general employment permits but that the recruitment of skilled non-EEA labour was a “short-term measure to meet labour market needs”.
Paul Sheridan, a director with the Construction Industry Federation (CIF), disputes claims that Ireland does not have the workforce to meet housing targets but says retrofitting should be “dealt with separate to the delivery of critical infrastructure like housing”.
Residential production increased by 94 per cent between 2011 and 2021, and housing completion rose by 570 per cent between 2012 and 2023, says Sheridan. The number of people required to work on sites has dropped 35 per cent with the modernisation of equipment, he says.
“I’m not saying we don’t need to attract new talent into the country but we’re saying we can deliver, we can scale up and meet the needs of Government and the private sector.”
