Thousands of non-EU workers brought in to fill gaps as ten key Irish industries hit by major staff shortage crisis

IRELAND is bringing in 40,000 non-EU workers every year to fill gaps in the labour market as we have gone “beyond full employment”, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has revealed.

It comes after an Irish Sun investigation revealed the true extent of the country’s staff shortage crisis with 100,000 vacancies across 10 key industries.

Ireland’s construction, hospitality and healthcare sectors are among the hardest hit by the staffing crisis with one builder telling the Irish Sun he could double his staff numbers if there were enough skilled tradespeople.

And restaurant owner Mike Ryan told how he is struggling to bring in chefs from overseas to fill his vacancies because they are being turned away by Ireland sky high accommodation prices.

Responding to the concerns raised by trade union leaders in the Irish Sun report, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar admitted that the staff shortage is hitting all industries hard – including the public sector.

He said: “Ireland is now beyond full employment. I never thought we’d hear that term.

“It’s a fabulous achievement that we have full employment in Ireland – a job for everyone who wants one – but we’re now at the point where we are beyond full employment and there are more vacancies than there are people with the skills available to fill those jobs.

“It’s in the public sector. It’s in the private sector. It’s in very well paid sectors and it’s in poorly paid sectors. It’s in small businesses, it’s in big businesses. It is across the board now.

“That is in part because of the fact that our economy is so strong and there are so many job opportunities for everyone.”

Asked about what the Government can do to help ease the staff shortages, the Taoiseach said they have ramped up the number of non-EU visas that are being handed out to skilled workers with the Department of Enterprise turning around requests in a matter of weeks to speed up the process.

Figures from the Department of Enterprise show that 39,955 visas were issued to non-EU workers last year with more than half of these heading for the healthcare sector and information and communication activities.

Almost 21,000 people from outside the EU have already come to Ireland so far this year to take up jobs including 6,830 healthcare workers, 1,732 for the hospitality sector and 1,561 for the finance and insurance industry.

Taoiseach Varadkar said the Government is on course to issue 40,000 non-EU working visas this year as the Government looks to fill the gap in the labour market.

The Taoiseach told the Irish Sun: “What can we do? A big focus on skills and Minister Harris in particular is leading that in terms of the apprenticeships and increasing the number of college places to make sure we have more people coming through.

“The other area is work permits – issuing permits to people outside the EU who have skills that we need and we are issuing about 40,000 of them a year now and turning them around in a matter of weeks.

‘MAKING SURE THAT WORK PAYS’

“The third area is making sure that work pays – that people who go to work, people who stay in work get adequately rewarded for it and that’s why we’ve been trying to make sure that work in Ireland is more attractive.”

An Irish Sun investigation previously revealed alarming gaps across health, education, justice and childcare, while hospitality is buckling under the strain.

We have excluded retail jobs as reps were unable to provide an estimate of the shortages.

Ireland has reached full employment, with the latest CSO data showing that 74.2 per cent of people aged between 15 and 64 are currently working.

This boom is leading to staff shortages across all sectors as public bodies and private companies go to battle to recruit workers.

Our investigation of ten key sectors across the country shows that there are just shy of 100,000 vacancies in key areas which is grinding services to a halt – and in some cases endangering lives.

Construction is the hardest hit industry with a recent Government report claiming that almost 51,000 new apprentices were needed to complete the State’s building plans.

The serious shortage of carpenters, plumbers and electricians is leading to long delays on buildings projects, despite billions of euro being used to ease Ireland’s crippling housing crisis.