Harris is to spend €750k enticing Irish builders home from abroad
SIMON Harris has appealed for Irish construction workers abroad to come home to help meet house-building targets.
The Further and Higher Education Minister has been granted €750,000 to help recruit more workers into the construction sector.
Mr Harris was in London yesterday as part of the Cabinet’s St Patrick’s Day missions abroad, where he met Irish builders and encouraged them to come home.
‘It is essential we continue to support people entering the sector,’ he said. ‘This is vital to meeting our Housing For All targets and to ensure we address the most significant challenge our generation is facing. Irish construction workers are in high demand. Many left Ireland during the economic crash and have not returned and are now working on sites across the world.
‘A part of this funding will be used to engage with construction workers abroad to assess the motivations for moving abroad and establish any barriers to coming home.’
A key part of the €750,000 package to beef up the construction industry is luring Irish workers back from places like London, New York and Sydney, and establishing how the Government could incentivise them to return home.
During his meeting with Irish construction workers in the UK, he discussed ‘the opportunities that Ireland can offer to people seeking a meaningful career in this area’.
Some €750,000 has been allocated to advance the recently published Careers in Construction report, which found nearly 51,000 new construction workers will have to be recruited between now and 2030 to deliver the Government’s building targets. The funding will contribute to a ‘peer-topeer social media campaign to dispel myths surrounding careers in construction’ and a campaign to advise skilled construction workers abroad of the opportunities in Ireland and the pipeline of work here.
The social media campaign will target teens from 15 years of age, and will try to change perceptions of construction by showing ‘on the job’ experiences of young adults at work.