Ireland has launched a massive advertising campaign to tempt migrant workers in Australia back home to address their own housing crisis.
Every year, Australia’s world-famous weather and high industry wages unsurprisingly see thousands of Irish tradies flock to our sunny shores in search of a career in construction.
Just between the 2022-2023 financial year alone, the Australian Department of Home Affairs granted 21,525 working holiday visas to Irish citizens – more than double the year prior of 10,491.
However, while this is good news for us as the Aussie building sector continues its efforts to plug up widespread labour shortages, the mass exodus of skilled has reportedly left the country with a housing crisis of its own to deal with.
Recent research found that more than 50,000 workers will be needed by the end of the decade to help fix the nation’s crisis, with a decent chunk of those workers identified as “skilled Irish construction workers who have moved abroad and are considering returning”.
So Ireland has set their sights on bringing their boys home, launching a new multi-billion dollar “Build Back Home” campaign that has seen massive billboards cropping up around Australia’s major city hubs.
Irish tradies call bullshit
The only problem? Irish workers aren’t taking the bait. After the campaign was shared on the department’s Facebook social media account, hundreds of migrant tradies took to the comment section claiming they were better off working down under.
“It’s a hard pass. Australia is good to those who work hard,” one said.
“I don’t think the Irish want to come back home. I know they love living in Oz,” a second added.
A third joked: “The weather alone would keep them here.”
The government said that these tradies have “misconceptions” about returning home, which they were trying to dispel in the FAQ on its website.
“Some believe life admin such as banking, getting a mobile phone and taking out health insurance involves a lot of red tape,” the Build Back Home campaign said.
“Many suspect their overseas experience won’t be valued when they return to take up work in Ireland.”
But by the sounds of it, these comments aren’t far off the mark, with Sinn Féin TD Mairéad Farrell saying the current spike in workers’ heading overseas highlighted that something needed to change to keep Irish people at home.
“We have all seen the rise in young people leaving for Australia… we see it in our friendship groups, in our family circles and in our neighbourhoods,” she told reporters last week.
“We keep being told that the economy is doing well, but very clearly something is going wrong for young people here that they feel there is no alternative but to go to Australia.”
She added that housing was clearly a major factor in people running to the other side of the world.
“Rents are so high that many young people have no choice but to continue to live with their parents into their 30s,” Farrell said.
“House prices show no signs of falling, and with lack of affordable housing, homeownership is out of the reach of ordinary working people.
“These are young people who have been forced to go abroad because they feel they have no ability to build a life here.”
We need all the help we can get here
Ireland’s latest attempts to bolster its workforce come as Australia is caught in the midst of its own housing crisis and needs as many tradies as possible to fix the burgeoning problem.
New modelling from the Housing Industry Association (HIA) found the trades workforce needs to grow by at least 30 per cent in order to meet the Housing Accord’s goals. That’s up from the current 278,000 workers currently employed.
More than 83,000 extra tradies are “urgently needed” to achieve Australia’s target of building 1.2 million homes over the next five years, including 22,000 carpenters, 17,300 electricians and nearly 12,000 plumbers.
