The Government should target workers from the EU and US to combat a shortage of labour across all sectors of industry in the State, a recruitment specialist said yesterday.
The managing director of the High Skills Pool, Ms Caroline Leacy, said such an initiative must be similar in size and scope to efforts by Bord Failte to attract tourists to the State. Speaking from the High Skills Pool recruitment fair in the RDS in Dublin, she said this could be done within existing public bodies, such as the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
Welcoming the success of IDA Ireland in attracting inward investment to the State, Ms Leacy said the Government must act now to attract workers.
The current rate of growth in the labour market could not be sustained without attracting additional workers from abroad, Ms Leacy said. This was true for all sectors of the economy - from information technology (IT) and finance to catering and motor repairs.
"In general, the whole market is tightening. We are going to have to look at non-nationals to fill these positions. This is urgent. Companies cannot fill vacancies from home. They're going to have to act on this."
Asked whether the available pool of Irish workers from abroad was diminishing, she said: "We would say, from our database, that the vast majority of people who emigrated in the 1980s and 1990s have come home." Ms Leacy said a recent initiative to provide work visas for 5,000 IT experts was "not enough".
More than 100 firms in various sectors sought to recruit workers at the fair, at which some 20,000 visitors were expected today and yesterday. Among them were the US IT multinational, Hewlett Packard, which is seeking 540 workers for its e-commerce, systems management and manufacturing operations at Leixlip, Co Kildare.
Another US firm, Motorola, wants to recruit about 250 workers at the fair, Bank of Ireland has about 100 vacancies and Ericsson is seeking about 150 new staff.
Hewlett-Packard's public affairs manager Ms Una Halligan said the firm had already begun to recruit EU workers for its Irish operations. She said young workers in particular were keen to come to the State to seek work.
But Ms Leacy said: "It's a perception of Ireland that the country is seen as a tourist area, but not one to work in. A lot of it seems to be down to the fact that those with the skills don't know the jobs are here."
Asked about claims that high property prices and growing traffic congestion would put workers off moving to urban areas in the State, Ms Leacy said these were features of city life in many states. "The price of property has become an issue if you are in a major city. Ireland is just in a catching up phase," she said, adding that high rates of personal taxation were seen in a similar light in the 1980s.
On the perception that many jobs in IT, at call centres in particular, were not well paid, Ms Leacy said: "It's a known fact that within the call centres the wages aren't great, so there will be a high turnover of staff."
