Paypal asks staff to offer rooms to new employees as rent crisis bites

The head of Paypal Ireland has said the rental crisis is so bad here that the company is now asking staff to offer rooms to new employees.

Speaking at the Construction Industry Federation annual conference, Louise Phelan (pictured) warned that new recruits could not find accommodation due to the shortage of rental properties.

She said the company was paying up to €2,000 extra for new employees coming to Ireland for hotels when they arrive, and confirmed the company is requesting existing staff to offer rooms to new recruits where possible.

Paypal, which employs 2,400 people in Dublin and Dundalk, said Ireland would lose foreign direct investment unless something was done to improve the rental market.

A rapid increase in Dublin's population has had profound implications for the city's housing shortage,

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New CSO data shows that population growth is running two and a half times faster than previously thought, with 32,000 more people now living in the city compared to 2014.

Savills Ireland said the acceleration would raise the annual building requirement from around 6,000 residential units per year to almost 13,000.