Thank you very much. I will leave IBEC until last and move to the Construction Industry Federation.
Presentation by CIF.
Thank you for the opportunity to address this committee. Our submission, which I will not go through, has a number of recommendations at the end. I will refer to them at the conclusion of my remarks.
There are now approximately 155,000 people employed in the construction industry compared with not much more than half that figure in 1993. From the point of view of this committee, the most focused point I could make would be to answer the question, "Are there people on the live register available for work in the organised construction industry at present?" In the early 1990s there were substantial numbers of unemployed construction workers who have largely, if not entirely, been re-employed in the expansion of the industry since 1993. By 1998 there were limited numbers of people on the live register who were available for work in the organised construction industry. Early in that year we undertook with FÁS and the Department of Social Welfare, as it then was, a pilot programme in north County Dublin for people on the live register who had indicated their previous employment status as being in the construction industry. FÁS sent letters inviting them for interview to see if they were in a position to take up employment opportunities in the construction industry. In that pilot programme of the 340 letters issued, 258 did not respond and the numbers who presented for interview whittled down to 58 from which 13 placements were made.
That was in early 1998. We concluded that of the current figures of those whose previous employment had been declared as construction the numbers available for employment were significantly fewer. At the beginning of the current year the balance between vacancies available and job seekers was tighter still. The committee will note from our submission that we see the industry looking for 16,000 additional people each year over the next three years to meet the requirements of the national development plan and the general demand for construction activities.
I wish to comment briefly on a couple of points relating to the construction industry that came up in the earlier discussion this morning. There was a reference to the low numbers of apprentices in the early 1990s in the construction industry contributing to the current shortfall in numbers. There has been a rapid increase in the numbers currently employed compared with the position in 1993. In the early 1990s virtually no sector of the Irish economy on the indigenous side, manufacturing services, distribution and construction, was profitable or expanding. In fact, a significant number of companies were going out of business. In that environment very limited investment took place in equipment or people. That is the background to the low apprentice numbers in the early 1990s.
The numbers now of first-year apprentices joining the industry has virtually trebled from 2,000 to 6,000 in the current year - all of whom are high quality young people. The system has changed from being a time-based system to a standards-based system. There were issues of the learning curve involved when the system was changed but everybody is familiar with the new system. That is a factor in the large numbers wishing to join the industry, in the form of taking on apprenticeships, and the availability of apprenticeships.
References, both positive and negative, were made to FÁS, as the implementing agency. Our current experiences are significantly more positive than a number of years ago. As stated by Mike Allen of the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed, Ireland is changing. We would be happy to reflect a more positive response to our current experiences of FÁS. There are serious bottlenecks in the apprenticeship system but they are not for this forum. We are seeking to address them with the organisations directly concerned.
Deputy Bell mentioned subcontracting in the construction industry. The growth of subcontracting in the construction industry is mirroring what is happening in manufacturing industry generally, in the construction industry internationally and is a reason for the rapid growth in services employment in Ireland where smaller companies provide a specialised service to a group of larger companies and grow in that way. There is agreement on subcontracting between the CIF and the construction group of unions in Congress. That agreement is accepted by seven of the eight trade unions in the construction industry and accepted by the Labour Court. Subcontracting in areas such as mechanical services, electrical services, painting, plastering, joinery are very long established.
Looking to the future, what the industry needs is high output, high productivity, an industry well remunerated and operating flexibly. We have significant job vacancies and are aggressively seeking to fill them. We have done our analysis of how to go about filling the existing vacancies from additional apprentices, additional recruitment from third level and clerical and administrative staff, additional general operatives and some also, mainly Irish people, from Northern Ireland and the UK.