Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The skills shortage across many sectors has been exacerbated by the pandemic. While many businesses thankfully survived that terrible vista, in no small way due to the financial supports from the Government, such as the wage subsidy schemes, the CRSS, waiving of rates, warehousing of tax returns etc., the re-opening presents its own challenges. Not least of these is the impact of energy and fuel costs, but there is a further and serious issue of skills shortage and unavailability of work, both at home and, it would appear, in Europe.

This is a growing phenomenon, which has been exacerbated by delays in the processing, adjudicating and awarding of permits for workers, especially of those who are from outside Europe. This is a case that is manifesting itself throughout the country and in my own constituency and many others in recent weeks. It is against that backdrop that I wanted to read into the record two such representations. The first is from an engineering company which is based in Tullamore. It states:

We currently have over €15 million worth of work ahead of us at present, all for export to the UK. We are in serious need of fitter fabricators, turners and mechanical design engineers. We have explored every avenue possible regarding advertising and recruitment agencies and cannot get the staff we require. As you are aware, Barry, last year we had to recruit from outside the EU, which is a massive task and expense, but we had no option. Going to all that effort and expense is one thing, but the extremely slow process of work permits and visas, even though we have a trusted partner status, is crazy. The timeframe between work permit application and approval and then visa application is 20 to 22 weeks. That is with all going according to plan. We used a company last year to recruit eight men from Vietnam. We paid €8,000 to apply for eight work permits. After nearly five months of waiting they were approved, but these men fell through, due to long wait for the permit. We lost our €8,000. At this point, our situation is critical. We have now employed the services of another recruitment company. They have an expert in the field of recruitment from the Philippines. We are currently going to try and take on ten fitter fabricators, at a cost of €6,000 per person to recruit. However, again, the issue with the processing of work permits is going to delay us hugely. We need these workers urgently, Barry, and we cannot afford to be let down again.

A haulage company contacted me. It stated:

Like every transport and logistics company in Ireland, we have been operating during Covid-19 to keep open the supply chain links that are vitally necessary of course for the economic and social wellbeing of this country. As you are aware, there is a crisis in our industry regarding the recruitment and retention of heavy goods vehicle drivers. You have seen what happened in the UK, with shops shelves empty and panic buying at the forecourts. We as an island nation that is predominantly rural are totally dependent and road haulage, because the only viable means of transport of waterways and rail are not viable or realistic options. In this regard, we are at the coalface, collecting milk off-farm in the midlands and delivering animal feedstuff and fertilisers to farms, also in the midlands. Without this service, the agricultural sector would grind to a halt. Already, there is a real risk of milk not being collected off farms in 2022. This, of course, would have a catastrophic impact on both farm and agri-processing industry. To address this dilemma, this haulage company has commenced the recruitment process of South African drivers. However, the process of obtaining work permits has dramatically slowed. It is in this regard, Barry, that we need your assistance urgently. We need these workers immediately, as we are now commencing a substantial 2022 milk collection season with Glanbia.

That is a just a flavour of what I am sure is also being relayed to the Minister of State by many other Deputies throughout the country. I felt it necessary to read them into the record, in order to show it from the perspective of my own constituency. While it is predominately rural, it is also dependent on acquiring a workforce from beyond Europe. While the free movement of work and services within Europe was a welcome delivery from the EU over many years as a placement for a workforce, it has now dried up. It is essential that we enter into agreements with other third countries that are outside Europe, some of which I have mentioned and many others of which I am sure the Minister of State is aware. The Minister of State might update us on the efforts that his Department is making to address this issue so that we can confidently express our commitment to our constituents and to those companies that they may have an option in the near future.

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