Laois County Council is to write a letter to the government calling on it to introduce measures aimed at recruiting and retaining frontline staff.
This comes after Independent Councillor Aisling Moran put forward a motion on the matter at Monday’s monthly meeting.
Cllr Moran said that nurses and Gardai are leaving their positions ‘in their droves’ and something had to be done to halt this.
She said: “We need nurses, doctors, Gardai – all types of frontline services – and we need to encourage young people to stay in it.
“If we look at other companies, the likes of Facebook and Ryanair have purchased houses/apartments and then rented them back to employees at affordable rates.
“We could offer them incentives on mortgages. In some professions, you have to do overtime and when that is the case, tax incentives could be offered there too.
“If you look at teaching for example, a teacher can go on a career break and retain their permanent job. That means a young teacher can’t actually take that position while the other teacher is on career break.”
The motion was supported by fellow Independent Councillor Ben Brennan but Fine Gael’s Vivienne Phelan requested that Cllr Moran back up what she was saying with facts.
In response, Cllr Moran said: “In a recent survey by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, 50% say they intend to quit within two years.”
In a second motion, Cllr Moran called on the government to engage with SOLAS and other industry stakeholders such as the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) to initiate the upskilling and training of essential building trades so as to enable the sector to provide the requisite number of homes as set out in the Government’s own housing targets.
Cllr Moran said: “The government missed their housing targets last year and now say they are going to build 60,000 houses this year.
“I can’t see how they can achieve this without more workers in the various sectors.
“With that in mind, I think Portlaoise is ideally suited for an apprenticeship academy.”
Cllr Moran was supported in her motion by fellow Independent Cllr James Kelly.
Fianna Fail Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald said: “It should be noted about the great work that the LOETB is doing at National Construction Training Centre in Mount Lucas.
“We should get Tony Dalton in here some day for a presentation because there really is fantastic work in a range of different areas.
“I know the numbers enrolled there are growing year on year and those who complete the courses are receiving great results.”
SEE ALSO – €1,000,000 approved for new Portarlington Business Park on site of old Avon factory
