Key public sector workers, including gardaí, teachers and nurses, are being priced out of the housing market in four out of five of the State's largest cities.
A survey by Halifax, the new name for the retail arm of Bank of Scotland (Ireland), found that gardaí, nurses, firefighters and teachers cannot afford to buy a home in Dublin, Cork, Galway or Waterford.
For the purpose of the study, affordability is considered to be five-times the average annual income - the usual maximum amount mortgage lenders offer to potential borrowers - and is based on a single buyer purchasing a second-hand home.
According to Halifax, affordability has deteriorated significantly since 2003 when Dublin and Galway were the only unaffordable cities for key public sector workers. Over the two-year period to March 2006, house prices in Ireland increased by 43 per cent, according to the bank, compared to a 17 per cent gain in key worker salaries.
However, while the Halifax survey focuses on public sector workers, who in the UK generally earn less than their private sector counterparts, in the Republic it may not carry so much weight. A recent study by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) found that public sector workers here in fact earn 40 per cent more than those in the private sector.
According to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office, the average public sector wage is about €45,152 a year, compared with only €36,165 in the industrial sector. Halifax said it had focused solely on public sector workers because they are essential to every community. While other types of workers can relocate to out-of-town locations, nurses and firefighters need to live within close proximity of their workplaces.
Yesterday's survey found that the worst affected people are nurses and firefighters, with the average Dublin home costing more than 13-times their average annual salaries, which stand at €32,408 and €34,307 respectively. At around 10-times their average salaries, homes in Cork and Galway are also out of bounds, while Limerick and Waterford would require around eight times the professions' average salaries.
The survey looked at Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Waterford, and found Limerick to be the only city where any of the aforementioned public sector workers could reasonably afford a home. Still even here homes remain out of bounds for nurses, firefighters and primary teachers.
Last night two teachers' unions - ASTI and INTO - reacted to the release of the figures. The general secretary of the ASTI, John Whyte said: "Given that most secondary teachers are aged 40-plus, the chances of a young teacher being able to afford a house in these cities is even less than the figures suggest." INTO general secretary John Carr said that unless teachers got a major pay rise, there would be a "chronic teacher shortage in city schools".
