Too many fruitless nights spent phoning up to 40 plasterers, only to find no-one available for work, has helped one Co Limerick house builder decide that in boom times bigger is not necessarily better. "If you don't have the workers, you can't finish the jobs on time," says Donal O'Brien of Kildimo Development in Pallaskenry, a relatively small operator who now turns down around two potential house contracts a week. "Customers get annoyed, and you can't blame them. (But) it's not worth the hassle." The headaches associated with the shortage of bricklayers, plasterers, and to a lesser extent, carpenters, in Limerick and the mid-west region are less intense, but "still serious" for larger construction companies, says Brian McCarthy, an Ennis-based regional contractor.

Other employers say a slight rise in the number of skilled workers from the North is helping to alleviate the shortages, but they would welcome the arrival of more. According to Michael Murphy of Custom Construction, one of Limerick's biggest house builders, quality general labourers are increasingly hard to find. Other builders identified a lack of quality painters and carpenters as an ongoing problem.