Irish Examiner View: Tradespeople need houses too

The housing crisis continues to sprawl across the Irish landscape, reaching into various sectors of modern life, having an impact everywhere one might expect, as well as in some places one might not.

The new plan to give local authorities €150m to buy vacant derelict buildings in cities and towns — to make them available for housing — is one example of the impact of the crisis.

The news that residents in a Cork housing estate wish to blockade workers building new houses nearby has clear implications for accommodation.

These developments have an immediate effect on housing, but others are less obvious, such as the decline in apprenticeships reported here earlier in the week. The numbers registering for apprenticeships fell by 300 last year when compared to 2021 — a drop of 8,607 to 8,286.

The Government’s target is to achieve 10,000 sign-ups every year by 2025 as part of its strategy to tackle housing shortages, having identified a skills shortage as one of the impediments to achieving its housing targets.

Clearly if Ireland is not producing enough qualified tradespeople, that will have a knock-on effect on building targets.

One could go further and anticipate problems down the line if this is not addressed.

If qualified tradespeople are unable to buy houses because not enough of them are being built, will they be forced to emigrate? The Government’s housing targets could become more and more unachievable if the very workers needed to build them are forced to leave the country.

Not for the first time, the housing crisis reveals itself as a problem with the potential to spill over into other areas and perpetuate itself, as seen here.

Calls for State construction projects to accommodate a certain number of apprentices in order to help address this problem are welcome, and should be made part of State building contracts as soon as possible.

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