Concern grows over worker shortage

By Andrew Bushe

DUBLIN — Plans for the country’s first work visa program aimed at attracting about 200,000 workers over the next seven years will be brought to the Cabinet later this month by Tanaiste Mary Harney.

Harney, who is also trade and employment minister, has circulated details of the plan to ministers.

The plan would be a huge international head-hunting exercise to attract workers to fulfill the requirements of the national development plan and the increasing demands of existing industry and new businesses.

The initiative follows growing concern from multinationals about skills shortages and worries that the lack of suitable staff will mean companies will locate new developments abroad.

The Minnesota-based electronics company ADC last week opted for Glenrothes in Scotland to build a £30 million manufacturing plant.

It will employ up to 1,100 workers and the availability of staff is thought to have been a major factor in the decision to locate in Scotland.

The IDA had been hoping the company would set up in a so-called Objective One area in the border, midlands or west, where an attractive package of measures, including corporation tax at just 12 percent, would tip the balance in favor of Ireland.

The tanaiste said pressure points on jobs are building.

"If companies know they can bring in people, that gives them the kind of assurance they need. We shouldn’t be losing projects," she said.

Harney expects that about half of the 200,000 workers being sought will be Irish emigrants returning home.

"But I think we will have to go further afield," she said, "to some of the Eastern European countries, the new countries that will be joining the EU, the United States and New Zealand and any others places where there are young people who want to travel around the world and who have got skills and can help us to sustain the sort of economic growth levels we have been experiencing."

Last year, about 7,000 work permits were granted in Ireland, many of them to new industries.

An Irish government spokesman said ministers going abroad to attend St. Patrick’s Day celebrations around the world will be briefed to make a very public appeal to encourage Irish people who had emigrated to now return.

The spokesman said that consultations would be held biennially with employers and trade unions to identify the skills deficits and keep the immigrant policy fine-tuned.

"About 40,000 people came to the country last year, about half of them returning Irish emigrants, but we need to recruit on an organized basis," the spokesman said. "It is now planned to put in place a visa scheme for the first time. It will be a skills-based program based on the needs of the economy."

The FAS training and recruitment company also plans a series of jobs fairs and recruitment drives. Among the locations where these would likely be held are New York, Boston, Newfoundland, London, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Hanover, Cologne and Estonia.