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CLOSE TO 51,000 new entrants to the construction sector need to be recruited by the end of the decade to meet the government’s Housing for All and National Retrofit Plan targets.
The construction of 33,000 new homes per year up to 2030 is one of the Housing for All aims.
Meanwhile, the National Retrofit Plan aims to retrofit the equivalent of 500,000 homes to a B2 Building Energy Rating (BER) standard by 2030.
The new entrants required to meet these aims will be needed in managerial, professional, skilled, and semi-skilled occupations.
Over 30,000 of these new entrants are required for “craft skills”, which includes electricians, pipefitters, bricklayers, plumbers, carpenters, plasters and painters.
However, a new action plan which was published today, called ‘Careers in Construction’, warned that “providing a sufficient number of new entrants in the craft skills poses the most serious challenge”.
The report puts this down to the skill level required, alongside a “combination of the pandemic and low growth in new housing prior to 2018”.
The report points to a need for the construction industry to “recruit and retain a higher number of workers than is currently provided for through education, apprenticeship and current retention levels”.
However, it notes that a “narrow perceived image” of the construction industry is harming efforts to recruit new entrants, particularly young people and women.
This includes the perception that working within the industry is solely“ on-site” and that the sector “falls prey to cyclical economic crises”.
As part of the report, the government went through a series of focus groups with “key audiences” including students, teachers, parents, employers, as well as former and current workers in the sector.
A “consistent theme” among students, teachers and parents was a “limited understanding of the breadth of roles and opportunities within the sector”.
For example, students tended to view the industry through the lens of “on site” and visualised “tough physical outdoor work in harsh weather conditions”.
Students were also described as having “limited appreciation” of office-based roles within the industry.
Female students also viewed construction sites as male dominated places which are “less welcoming for women”.
One second-level female student commented: “I just think of loads of men working on a site, not really somewhere that I would ever think of working.”
Another said she was “not sure that they would have respect for women in an all-male environment”.
Females also had concerns about the changing, toilets and washing facilities that would be available for women on site.
Second-level females also reported that limited information was available in single-sex schools on construction apprenticeships.
Over the past 14 quarters, women have only been 10% of the construction workforce in three of those quarters.
Overall, only 18% of girls reported having a good understanding of the construction apprenticeship, compared with 42% for boys.
Of the 268 Transition year students who responded to tailored surveys for the report, only one male student considered the option to pursue an apprenticeship.
By his own admission, this male student viewed this as a “contingency option” in the event of failing to secure the points needed to attend third-level education.
The student in question also viewed pursuing an apprenticeship as a “less esteemed option amongst his peers and parents”.
Parents and teachers also exhibited “limited understanding of the sector”.
Parents were found to be worried about “financial uncertainty, career stagnation and physical burnout of construction careers”.
For example, one parent questioned the ability of block layers and plasterers to continue working into their 50s given the “physical, hard, demanding work”.
The report also noted that in some instances, “students are actively discouraged from pursuing roles in the sector”.
“I would see some parents who would very much be guiding their kids away from apprenticeships even though the kids would be interested,” said one teacher.
Some teachers also suggested that there was a “degree of snobbery” among parents towards the trades.
Meanwhile, a “reticence to recruit unemployed workers from the live register” was articulated by employers.
These employers questioned the work ethic of people who are unemployed and were hesitant to invest in recruiting and training people from the live register.
One employer remarked: “You would have to ask yourself if someone is unemployed when the economy is booming, do they really want to work and are they the type of person you want to invest your time training and if they are going to last?”
Staff retention was flagged as an issue and the report noted that long working hours and “unsustainable deadlines” encouraged people to leave the industry.
Employees also said that the under-pricing of public contracts in order to win a project appeared to be commonplace.
This puts an “unrealistic workload” on employees and a pressure to get more done for less
On the part of those who are unemployed, the requirement to give up their jobseeker’s allowance to engage in a training court was a significant barrier.
The report noted: “Given that many long-term unemployed workers have ongoing living costs, few appear willing to relinquish such financial support to engage in short term training and development.”
In response to the focus groups, a number of actions were agreed to help promote careers in the construction industry.
This includes plans to develop “flexible learning pathways in senior cycle education” with regards to traineeships and apprenticeships.
The Construction Industry Federation is also to continue providing staff training on gender bias and mentoring programmes for female employees.
Towards the end of this year, experts in the sectors will create resources that schools can use for engagement.
Next year, the Department of Further and Higher Education will deliver “multi-media resources, including a documentary, to inform students of the varied opportunities for men and woman and the changing working environment in the sector”.
Subject to funding, a national marketing campaign will also be launched next year for the construction sector to address the barriers highlighted in the report.
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Empty promises over and over…. Our own left behind as always
@BigEd: “our own”
First that’s utter nonsense.
Before the war in Ukraine there were 10K homeless Irish people. NOT A SINGLE PERSON like yourself said a word about that. Now that you think you can use this to stir up hatred of outsiders, you”care”.
Hardly.
Second, refugees are NOT to blame for the Irish people voting for right-wing parties for 100+ years, which in turn CREATED the housing crisis. Again a crisis that existed BEFORE the current refugee crisis.
We are a RELATIVELY empty state. Compared to the rest of the EU.
We have taken essentially zero refugees compared to Germany. In fact, 5 EU states take over a quarter of all refugees. Until 2023 we took about as many as Cyprus and Malta.
Our problem IS NOT refugees. And WE KNOW THIS for a few simple reasons:\
Homelessness in Ireland has increased by 2k in the last year. It was 10K before that.
Refugees that can afford to rent in Ireland are no different than immigrants from the US or Germany, etc. ie. people moving to Ireland that can somehow pay their own way.
83 thousand refugees, and yet only a 2000 increase in homelessness.
And if we’d not spent 100 years voting for awful governments that created 10k homeless IRISH PEOPLE we wouldn’t even be worried about refugees and housing. And you didn’t care when it was just Irish.\
This is just another case of wishing your hatred had a factual basis, but it doesn’t.
@Chris O’Brien: Well said. Couldn’t agree more. And the sooner they make a start on housing, the better.
So many plans, so little action.
@BigEd: the government is in solidarity with the public when it comes to housing and will not except that kind of criticism
@Chris O’Brien: talking of facts: none of the Government parties are “right wing”. Secondly to claim all those in emergency accommodation are Irish is false.
This government wants to house the Irish and the world. I’m doubtful it can be done.
@Irish Harp: Of course, this isn’t vaguely true.
the Irish government doesn’t care AT ALL about housing ANYONE except as it relates to their own quest for power.
10K homeless before the war in Ukraine. And guess who never made a peep about that.
Hint: look in the mirror.
You’re just a xenophobe looking for an in with the simple.
@Chris O’ Brien: I get what you’re saying, but who are you to say about anyone that they never made a peep about homelessness before the Ukraine war? If I’m understanding both your comments correctly, you’re both making the same point? That the government is essentially perpetuating this crisis with their false promises to both the Irish and immigrants?
Check you’re anger, I get it’s a highly emotive topic, which I’m no stranger to, but don’t be so quick to hurl insults and cry racist.
@Ross O’: No one said anything about racism. His point stands.
The country is full of empty houses that need refurbishment. I’m old enough to remember buildings in Dublin crumbling into the street, slates falling, weeds growing out of chimneys. And people having to sleep rough at the same time. I’m not surprised people emigrated, but where’s the incentive for anyone to stay if the jobs are understaffed and working conditions are cr@p here?
@Irish Harp: in solidarity it can
Use the reports and action plans to build a house. There are enough of them. The foreign workers we brought in during the boom were treated appalling in many cases and returned home with their tales of life here. We belittled the artisan skills for decades and promoted university educational goals. Now we see the fruits of our labours. We need to treat apprentices properly, pay them better and not make it a third level course as we did with other jobs like gardai and nursing where the standards didnt improve very much when they attended collages.
@Spanner: you can’t build a wall from a callcenter.
@Spanner: I think you’re right. Skills weren’t being passed on.
@Spanner: Correct too many students in University in unsuitable coursces.The focus needs to change.More supports for the traditional trades and skills
The contraction sector has been reducing since the start of the year. Won’t be long before the back end falls out of the industry again.
@Roy Dowling:
Seems the commercial sector that’s in big trouble at the moment, the shortage in supply of residential will keep a floor in it for now.
But, yes the number of units finished will fall, in the middle of a crisis?
But it will continue during the next government, regardless of who is in power.
@Roy Dowling: I was commenting on a comment yesterday about houses being built but I’ll say the same thing you wouldn’t think you had a shortage here in Limerick,it’s construction work all over the place between housings, secondary schools,new hospital,never ending in Limerick.
@Daniel Roche: I’m guessing most of if not all those projects you mentioned started construction pre 2023?. New products starting have been shrinking every month since the year began and output from previous projects started pre 2022 has slowed a lot as well. High costs are the main reason for the slowdown.
@Roy Dowling: The banking sector is having a wee crisis across the water, hopefully will be a while before it starts having an effect here, or it’s good luck getting those loans.
@Roy Dowling: Maybe that’s why it’s called the “contraction sector”?
@Roy Dowling: Honestly a bit of both but I asked around and Limerick has the most construction work in the country, probably why I’m seeing it
The reality of it is in the next 10yrs 90% of the jobs in the construction industry will be filled people from overseas it’s probably already at 70%
When times get tough, construction is the first casualty. Young students today see an easier prob more secure life sitting behind a computer.
The youths that are claiming benefits for more than 3 months should forced to unskilled to meet the demands.
@Colin Tinnelly: There is not a chance that 70% of staff in the construction sector here are from overseas. And a lot of people in it make far more than someone sitting behind a computer.
@Colin Tinnelly: The amount of young people going straight from secondary to college,who haven’t a clue what they want to do is crazy,just picking a course cause society says you need to go to college,we are putting the young off getting a trade,I didn’t go to college,earn more then alot of people my own age that did,but usually comment I get is at least you have a job,this job bought my house as a single dad, before a trade was a great thing,now it’s looked down as,until that changes we will have shortages,I work in retail since I was 21.
Believe me it’s not far off it. The only trades with the majority of Irish staff are Mechanical and Electrical and they are only clinging onto it.
@Colin Tinnelly: There might not be much of an easier or secure life sitting behind a computer anymore when you’re competing with AI in the not too distant future.
@Colin Tinnelly: Show me figure’s then if it’s not far off not a hope it’s even near 70% and I don’t have to believe you i’ve worked in it for 30 years.
I have two friends in the construction industry, both now work on the continent in blocks of three months on, one month off. In 6 months doing that they earn more than a full year working in Ireland.
We had 6 trainees taken on last March,well paid and looked after.Not one left at the end of the summer.One lad in his early 20s got his mother to come and pick him up because we worked in the rain.
@John Sleator: I’m an electrical contractor and it’s impossible to get staff(and retain them)the level of apprenticeships is terrible as most of them aren’t interested in hard work and want to play on their phones.I’ve actually taken on a few guys in their mid to late 20’s as they seem to be better suited to it.every type of contractor is in the same boat.
As a plumber I have to say the apprenticeship system is a joke why would I take on young lads when fa’s or whatever they are now takes them for 6 months a year just seen electrician struggling as lad had to go to tech had his daughter with him to give him a hand what’s wrong with the old way 1 day a week or Saturdays the system is set up for the big companies
@Chris Whelan: well said.I’m in the same boat as an electrical contractor.when I did it 35 years ago it was like you said.
I worked in construction on and off for 35 years… between recessions and working for unscrupulous construction companies and don’t get me started about agency work where they charge over the going rate to big companies who exploit the self employed and not have to pay proper holiday pay or any sort of pension. Young people stay well clear of construction. Also when you are over 50 you are unable for the physical demands of the work
Ffg have already sold our grandchildren to their overlords
@Robert Halvey: always excuses and someone else’s fault with people like you.who are you gonna blame when sf get in?
A useful study because we will never be able to address the housing crisis without building 10s of thousands of new homes and to do that we need the people to build them. There was a time when we had more than enough people in this sector, the 60s 70s and 80s in particular. However in the 90s when Ireland became a net immigration economy wages in this sector stagnated and fell due to the influx of cheap labour from Eastern Europe. Shame on the owners of large construction companies. Many skill Irish builders left for the USA and Australia and elsewhere. There is no point driving a big recruitment push in Eastern Europe again because you have to house those people somewhere. So if this study leads to a better understanding of the construction industry among students that’s good.
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: wages in construction rose not fell in the 90’s and 00’s
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: wages only stagnated and crashed during the recession and never really recovered. That’s why nobody is interested in a trade anymore.
You’d be better off working in Aldi.
Till the money gets better it’s not worth doing.
Any young fella thinking of getting a trade needs their head examined.
Stay in school as long as possible. It will work out better in the long run. That’s my advice.
@Harry Hope: I’m a sparks as well earning great money.these people in here don’t understand and are most likely not in the trade.most likely listening to some useless’tradesman” on a high stool that blames everyone for his shortcomings.
@Harry Hope: must be the only sparks in Ireland making that sort of money.
I was earning that 20 years ago when it was worth more too.
Electrical work was never really the highest paid but was steady and is highly regulated.
And less with the name calling. Makes you look like a right knob that can’t get across his point.
@John Terry: most of the people commenting are ex tradespeople that more than likely up skilled to a profession.
I’m speaking on experience.
Just never seen sparks making that every week.
Plasterer, brickies maybe on a price.
You’d have to wire in a lot of fuseboards for them figures.
It’s gas,go into any council estate and it’s falling down with young fellows kicking around the place doing wheelies on motorbikes…..ironically these are the guys that are going to need state housing the most.get them into work or stop their dole!
Back up the truck folks!
Shortage of accommodation, high rents, high energy costs, high everything Who would come to Ireland for work? And as stated in the article we are critically short in our own labour force So any target set by the Government is nothing but political spin
3 Nephews and 1 Niece respectfully all abroad and under 25. One in Germany, Frankfurt, building roads and giving orders. Two in Canada, Vancouver region building houses and my niece in Australia, working as a mental health worker for a large mining operation there.
@Frank Black: people have always emigrated.
Only trade I would be happy for my child to pursue is electrical but by a certain age mid 20′s they’d need to be branching back into 3rd level part time to up skill on it. Plumbing leads to nothing after you get your papers and is a waste of time if you ever want any future office role. Not everyone wants to work 60 hours a week for themselves killing themselves and just forget about earning big money if your not doing that. A full set of electric tools, hand tools, power tools, core drills, compressors, generator, your van, insurance and certs your talking min 50k debt just to be able to go earn a couple hundred a week and constantly be stressed about being one van theft away from financial ruin. Carpentry took a big hit, hardly any young lads doing it now. All the rest have been wiped out over the years and for good reason as they are back breaking work and will leave your body in pieces by 50.
I have worked in construction for 35 years.Some of Ireland richest men are builders, however for the worker it is boom or bust. Celtic Tiger roared and was great wages but then the recession hit and I couldn’t get a penny off the state. I was paying 35k a year in tax and found out I was entitled to no welfare at all. I have always educated my kids just how bad construction is and to never enter into it. The Government were recently giving out about tradesmen costing too much money and the need for new methods in construction that are less labour intensive and now they want to attempt a recruitment drive? Instead of developers waltzing off into the sunset with all the profits they need to offer proper long term careers with proper salaries and pension plans.
All in Australia, earning a decent wage.
@Telemachine: plenty of decent wages here…tradesmen here(electricians ) easily make 80k
@John Terry: you’d get 100k plus in Australia with a better standard of living.
@James Smith: 100k in aus wouldn’t go as far as 80 here……and it’s hard to compare the draw of Australia with here.
The census every 5 years gives the government enough data to predict housing requirements.andvthe numbers of each trade needed and the other criteria needed to plan our country.
This needs to be done independently every year. And published so the public can see where the government are ignoring development.loke they did for oast 20 plus years.
Recruit and train from overseas, as our indigenous are not interested.
@Frank Heffernan:
Where?
Every developed nation on earth is short builders at the moment.
Forget Eastern European, they can get all the work they want in Europe.
China, Asia or Africa would be best bet.
House them in mobiles and log cabins.
@Frank Heffernan: Ireland and Europe in general had the lowest fertility rates in last 2 decades, thanks to neo liberalism and capitalism. Snobbery towards construction work didn’t help either, and the Eastern European workforce which built Ireland in Celtic tiger era are retired or returned their home countries. Ireland is trying to accommodate it’s local workforce + imported workforce for the IT companies. I really think it’s really the time to tax these big tech companies properly.
@Markos Drakos: stop with the neoliberalism for gods sake.it’s the entitled soft teenagers that were handed everything and don’t like hard work that’s the problem.
@John Terry: such rubbish. If I was 18 again I would never have bothered getting a trade, bogus self employment rampant,no pensions, no holiday pay, spend 1000s on tools only to get them all robbed, needing to pay 1000s for tickets just to get your own job, long shifts on back breaking work. Or ye can work in it and make a fortune with benefits. Yeah its definitely just “soft” kids not smart ones
@John Terry: if you were a young lad would you prefer to work in IT job, with 80+K salary with proper holiday or be construction worker? There’s a demand for both jobs at the moment.
@Markos Drakos: 100% agreed.
@Martin Mongan: that’s the spirit,you sound like you have a great attitude.you will go far.
@Markos Drakos: I’d still pick my trade(an electrician)all these people in here with the negative stereotypes and general negativity towards trades.they are usually the ‘hand me everything’ brigade or they are bad tradesmen.
Surely we can up skill quite a few people on long term social welfare payments to easily fill the gap, I would say they would only be delighted if given the chance.
@john dennehy: Yes and pay them properly instead of being totally exploited by greedy companies here under the JobBridge and similar umbrella, expecting anyone to work for free in their crap organization is not the way.
@Frank Black: I 100% agree with you.
@Frank Black: plenty of work as labourers on sites and they are payed decent wages.any contractors I talk to can’t get staff like myself.
@john dennehy: it takes 7/10 years to train a fully competent tradesman.
@James Smith: rubbish.its 4 years and I know plenty that are good to go after 3 years.
How are you going to have construction workers if there is no longer going to be meat in our diet? The elite have already released a bio engineered tick that can cause meat allergies.
Try lifting even a cavity block on a vegan diet and you will know what I mean
@Chief Of Police MAGA TRUMP IS THE NEWS NOW: But the new cavity blocks have been injected with a serum that makes them practially float… I thought you were clued into these things?
@Chief Of Police MAGA TRUMP IS THE NEWS NOW: Those are normal ticks from wild deer & it’s a known side effect of Lyme disease. It passes off. Stay out of American national parks & you’ll be grand.
If the paid overtime tax free it would increase productivity by 20% . Tax is far too much on overtime to be worthwhile
@Shane Hopeful: exactly.people pay enough tax on their 39 hours.
Speaking of government targets, it looks like Prigozhins private jet was shot down by Russia today. Tass reports he was on board.
@honey badger: You need help
@honey badger: it was accident…. yeah right never speak out against putin
@honey badger: Indeed. Bad enough to fall out of a window, but now they seem to be downing the whole jet.
@F Fitzgerald: The jet commited sucicide, silly.
Get the dole merchants off their butts and out to work
@Brian molloy: The unemployment rate in the Republic of Ireland was 4.1 percent in July 2023
The lowest of 3.9 percent achieved in October 2000 remains the all-time low.
I’m sure you know there are very few “dole merchants” but whatever makes you feel good yerself bud.
@: anytime I’m in a council estate it’s falling down with working age men pulling wheelies and kicking around the place.get them into work or cut their dole.
@John Terry: Working age men pulling wheelies?
Were you really ever in a council estate?
@: I was doing a job in Finglas recently and they are up and down cardiffsbridge road all day…. And plenty of other areas.
@: and some of the guys were in their 30’s and 40’s….never mind early 20’s.open your eyes.I bet like all the other people in the estates you are blind to it and see nothing wrong with it.
@John Terry: Sounds like you were really busy “at work in a council estate”
The parents concerns are correct. I worked in construction for years and ended going going back to college, best choice ever. It’s crap work and your treated like rubbish and I’m talking about how the state treats and protects you. There’s a reason there’s so many heavy drinkers and alcoholics in construction. And a newer growing weed and pill culture on sites, I understand why these young people are using on sites.
@tony barrett: nonsense,I’m on sites 30 years and I don’t share your opinion.
@John Terry: I’d share his opinion.
After the last crash the trades people were badly burnt by developers. Those that came back came back on a smaller scale but have plenty work lined up. They won’t get burnt a second time. As for apprenticeship, what employer will want to pay their apprentice to spend time giint to training centers
In other words. Targets will be missed badly and the housing crisis will roll on for a generation to come at least.
Queue the FFFG supporters claiming this is SF’s fault.
@Chris O’Brien: queue the ‘it’s someone else’s fault and ffg that is the problem’….
@Chris O’Brien: anyone with half a brain know precisely what IRASF have done, and continue to do.
@Roj Blake: IRA/SF lol are you from 25 years ago?
Take the workers retrofitting and put them building new houses. Nah
I suppose the doctors and engineers positions are all full now. Niger and Sudan are having a freedom bomb crisis at the moment so we can’t get them from there.
I worked for 7 months in a prefabricated building factory, no training, hard work poor pay, very little possibility of advancement. Turnover of employees was like a revolving door, in the first year the owner made 15 million in profit but wouldn’t provide tools. The John Terry attitude of blame everyone else was commonplace, I trained in an older worker because tradesmen were making a fool of him instead of training him to make themselves look good in front of the boss. That company lost all its second phase contracts to a different company who employed the guys who left that ffg connected poor employer.
@Martin Mullally: Jesus I don’t miss the construction industry in Ireland at all when I finally do come home I won’t be going back to the electrical game.
Apprenticeship is under valued a 1st year apprentice is paid 33.3% of craftsperson €7.03 per hour less than minimum pay rate, craftsperson (Carpenter) rate is €21.09
a skilled operative over 18 years old category A is €20.47.
Some trades are higher than that but crafts persons are under paid this is supported by the unions who insist on maintaining pay relativity. There is very little opportunity for promotion for the average crafts person, most have to become self employed to earn good money. There needs to be a clear path from an apprenticeship to higher education for those who have the ability and this needs to be funded by the industry. The Pension scheme for the construction industry would not pay the equivalent of the state pension, and if you are self employed you are not covered.
@John Kerr: Those are the advertised rates for carpenters, you’ll find a lot of employers on indeed offering 14-15 euro an hour for people with carpentry “skills”, they are told they are general operatives and not carpenters. I knew of two young trainees who were offered 240euro a week to train as plasterers apprentices, they had rent, insurance and cars to pay for, the plasterers went away complaining about the youth of today and how their backs are crippled at fifty. If you look at most construction crews most are in their mid fifties, if construction pays so well and unemployment is close to an all time low since records began why do they struggle to find staff and why do they have a massive generational gap with 50,000 needed. C.F.I paid for articles with guys bemoaning the lack of concentration camps in Ireland aren’t real solutions. Michael O’Leary is an accountant but not every accountant earns his wages.
@Martin Mullally: The point is serving an apprenticeship is a waste of time if you are employed as a craftsperson you will be paid 5% more than a skilled operative ie a digger driver or dumper driver they need a CSCS card that only takes a couple of days training. Anyone can say they are a Carpenter/plaster and if they have some skills can get employed there is no card given to craftsperson when they complete their apprenticeship if you can do the job no one asks. The hours and conditions are hard 7:00 to 18:00 is typical There is no working time directive in the construction industry. Long days 10 hours common and long commute to and from very few workers live near where they work a job would typically last 1 or 2 years then onto a new job in new location to start all over again.
have your say