Waterford businesses struggling to find staff due to lack of housing

The availability of housing has once again been raised at a monthly meeting of Dungarvan and Lismore Councillors.

Councillors this week discussed the need for more housing in order to maintain local businesses. Cllr Conor McGuinness said that businesses are struggling to find and maintain staff due to the lack of available housing in the county.

He said: “I have spoken to businesses in the area over the last number of weeks and engaged with Chambers Ireland and the local Chambers of Commerce around their pre-budget submissions.

“Employers are telling us they’re finding it very, very difficult to recruit and retain staff because of the housing crisis. So whilst there’s a need to solve the housing crisis because of the deep hurt and impact it has on people and the fact that its tearing families apart, I think it needs to be mentioned as well that more and more people are coming around that it needs to be solved and it needs to be solved fast."

Cllr McGuinness added that the number one item on the Dungarvan/West Waterford Chamber of Commerce pre-budget submission, and number two on the Chambers Ireland submission, is the provision of housing.

Cllr Donnchadh Mulcahy added that businesses have similarly relayed to him that maintaining staff has become a major issue.

Meanwhile, Cllr Tom Cronin said: “You can’t find houses if you’re a local and we need to get cracking on that and we can’t delay.

“If we need more staff in housing, well then we should go out and get them, because we need to get more serious about housing and deliver more houses for the people who need them."

Claire Hartley, Senior Executive Officer with Waterford City and County Council commented that the new council Chief Executive, Sean McKeown believes the provision of housing to be one of the key priorities of the council management team.