Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 12 October 2023
4. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he plans to expand the critical skills occupations list to address skills and labour shortages in the construction industry, especially in view of demand in the area of residential construction; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44370/23]
View answerMinisters are acutely aware of the impact that labour shortages and skills gaps in the construction are having on the ability of the Government to meet its own modest targets for residential construction. Does the Minister intend to review and expand the critical skills list in terms of craftspeople, the provision of additional skills and addressing those gaps for the construction industry?
We are in the process of looking at that right now. The construction sector has been the subject of reviews in recent years. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is part of the discussions with my Department to try to get right the critical skills list, which is about to be updated. We have taken the view that many of the skills in construction, from engineering to architecture to quantity surveying, and highly skilled tradespeople have been facilitated in terms of work permits. However, a general labourer, for example, on site, has not been on the critical skills list because the view was there was potential to fill those vacancies from Ireland or other parts of the EU and Single Market. We have to make sure we use all the skills we have in Ireland and across the EU first before bringing in people from other parts of the world. I think that is reasonable. We also have to anticipate where the shortages will be to facilitate housing output at the scale needed. We hope next year to go well beyond 30,000 houses being completed. To do that, we need people on building sites. We also need to move towards more modern methods of construction, which may not require as many people on site. The Department is putting quite a lot of funding and policy effort into delivering that.
As I said to Deputy O'Donoghue earlier, we hope to finalise next month the process of reviewing the critical skills list.
We went through a consultation process during the summer and received submissions. The relevant Departments are now discussing the appropriate changes that we should make. That will be done in a few weeks' time.
That is welcome information. At a committee meeting during the summer, I believe the Minister told my colleague, Senator Sherlock, that the review was under way. The figures are stark. I am looking at the October 2022 national skills bulletin from SOLAS, which identified a particular need for plumbers, carpenters, welders, computer numerical control, CNC, programmers, and electricians. These trades are not on the critical skills list. Will the Minister confirm that some of them will be included on the list consequent to the review? I assume that discussions have taken place with the relevant trade unions. That would be important.
The number of permits in the construction sector has been increasing in recent years. Most of the areas currently subject to critical skills permits are on the professional side - for example, architects and engineers - but there is an obvious need for skilled crafts people. I hope that we will see the Minister’s acknowledgement of this in the review’s output.
I will set out changes that we have made in response to some of the pressures the Deputy outlined. For example, the quota restriction on permits for bricklayers and plasterers, which was first introduced as part of a package in 2019, was eliminated in June 2022, giving those occupations unrestricted access to the general employment permit system. In October of the previous year, a package of occupations were made eligible, including tilers, painters and decorators. We respond each year. Each summer, we effectively go through a consultation process and try to respond afterwards. Of the 100 written submissions to the consultation process, 15 came from the construction sector. That says a great deal about the pressure therein.
All I will say is that we will respond. Obviously, I do not want to give the Deputy an indication because the process has not concluded.
That is okay.
I do not have a recommendation on my desk yet, but when I do, we will take decisions quickly because many businesses are waiting on them.
I understand the point the Minister made in his initial contribution that we must first look to our EU partners and the capacity of skilled individuals across the Union to fill our gaps. Something we could do quickly would be to agree that apprentices should not be paid any less than the national minimum wage.
We have an SEO in construction and some of these issues could be usefully discussed in the context of SEOs and the general collective bargaining system across construction. Some of the indications I am getting from trade unions about the small number of young people coming through wet trade apprenticeships are frightening and stark. We need to address this issue. One way of doing so would be for the Administration and us as a society to decide that the apprenticeship model should change. I suggest that the Minister work with and get the advice of the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, on reviewing rates for apprentices in the wet trades.
The Minister, Deputy Harris, is doing a great deal of work on apprenticeships and dramatically increasing numbers, but the Deputy is right in that there are certain trades where the numbers are not increasing to the extent required. We need to examine how to achieve that. We believe there will be an extra 9,000 apprentices this year. That was the target for the end of 2025 but will probably be met this year. As such, there is an appetite. We need to change the approach to apprenticeships generally in the Irish economy and make them a feature across all sectors and trades as opposed to just construction or related industries.
This issue is feeding into our considerations in the short term as to what decision we will make around facilitating skills coming into Ireland through the work permit system. We live in a Single Market with 460 million people and there are many skills across that market. We need to ensure that we explore options within our own Union before we facilitate more skills coming from other parts of the world. This Government has shown itself to be open to bringing in skills from across the world. Ireland is one of the few countries that sees inward migration as a positive thing in terms of economic growth and development. We have the economic statistics to prove that is the right decision.
