Ireland wants to attract thousands of foreign tech staff, but we may have trouble housing them

THE GOVERNMENT HAS launched a new initiative to help bring thousands of foreign tech workers to Ireland.

But the lack of affordable housing remains a major stumbling block to securing talented staff in the country, according to the head of one major tech employer.

The Tech Life Ireland promotion, details of which were previously revealed by Fora, was officially unveiled today with the aim of helping to attract 3,000 top tech professionals to Ireland each year.

The marketing campaign will look to position Ireland as a tech and lifestyle hub to try and attract in-demand workers based abroad. The initiative, which will cost €1.9 million over three years, will provide information about the jobs environment and careers in Ireland.

The government said that key features of the new website launched as part of the scheme will include quarterly reports for companies based on industry research, a live feed of tech job opportunities in Ireland and profiles of leading tech companies.

100,000 jobs

The initial target markets for the venture will include countries in central and southern Europe.

Ireland employs over 80,000 people in information and communications technology (ICT) companies, with employment growing strongly over the past six years.

Speaking at the launch of Tech Life Ireland this morning, Jobs Minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor said that the sector could employ an extra 20,000 people in the coming years.

Jobs Minister Mary Mitchell O'Connor with Tech Life Ireland chair Karl Flannery

“Recent job figures suggest that ICT employment is growing faster than previously forecast and if high levels of growth continue we could see almost 100,000 people employed in tech jobs by the end of 2018,” she said.

“At present rates of growth, we will need to attract up to 3,000 overseas ICT professionals to Ireland each year to meet overall demand and this initiative is part of the government’s ICT action plan.”

Tech Life Ireland chair and chief executive of Dublin-based business consultancy Storm Technology Karl Flannery added: “We have job openings to fill, projects to deliver and ambition to scale our organisations and a gap in the tech talent available to us.

“We employ homegrown talent whenever we can but the demand is exceeding the supply so we do have to look abroad.”

Rental issue

However, Ericsson Ireland managing director Zelia Madigan, who leads almost 1,400 staff in Ireland, cautioned that many existing tech workers were already finding it hard to find somewhere suitable to rent.

Speaking to Fora at the event, she said that the supply of rental housing is still a major issue for many workers - a problem previously raised by several other major multinational employers.

“They want to come to Ireland because we are one of the tech hubs of Europe and for their development, but the biggest issue is rental,” she said. “Supply is an issue, getting houses and apartments close to the offices can be difficult.

“Costs of rent in Ireland may not necessarily match up to the take-home pay; it is quite expensive to live here.

“I would think that the things to attract them would be the challenging environment that they can work in, that the education is fantastic and there is a high-performing culture here.”

A recent report from the skills and labour market research unit in Solas showed that there is a significant number of vacancies in the science, tech and IT sectors in Ireland, which have increasingly been filled with skilled foreign workers.