Companies in the Midlands are "blue in the face" advertising for staff, with little success, the director of an engineering plant in the region has said.
Mr Dermot Dunne of Midland Engineering & Grain Services Ltd, which is based in the Cloncollig Industrial Estate in Tullamore, said he has vacancies for up to six skilled fitters which are proving almost impossible to fill.
"We are blue in the face advertising on radio and in the local and national newspapers," he said.
As in other regions, industries are increasingly turning to overseas countries to find skilled recruits.
Mr Dunne said yesterday he had no option but to turn to recruiting staff from overseas. He is at present seeking work permits for two Romanian fitters, and is considering engaging a recruitment company to find other overseas workers.
One of those who has successfully recruited overseas is Mr Michael Fenlon of Fenlon Engineering Ltd in Longford. He travelled to Poland in search of skilled welders and fitters for his heavy and precision engineering business.
The company, with a workforce of 210, had a number of big contracts to deliver on two years ago and needed extra staff. Mr Fenlon spent a lot of money advertising in the local and national newspapers, as well as in EU member countries. He got only one reply and had to consider going farther afield.
Irish Cement was building a plant in Poland at the time and Fenlon Engineering Ltd had been engaged to make parts for it. On a visit to the plant, Mr Fenlon was impressed with the work of fitters there and decided to advertise for staff in Polish newspapers.
He now has 30 Polish fitters and welders on his staff and says they are excellent workers.
The cost to the company of employing them has been up to 10 per cent more than employing Irish workers. This is partly because Mr Fenlon agreed to pay their travel and accommodation costs and pay for an interpreter to travel with them. However, as he put it: "We've stayed alive because of it."
Mr Fenlon recounted his experience earlier this week at the first of several regional seminars organised by Enterprise Ireland on overseas recruitment. Representatives of up to 40 local companies attended the seminar in Tullamore where Mr John Shaughnessy of the Athlone office of Enterprise Ireland outlined the procedures for bringing in workers, including applying for work permits and visas where required.
Mr Shaughnessy said employers could find themselves a little frustrated by bureaucracy until they understood the full procedure.
He advised employers to look at various options in addition to overseas recruitment. They should also, for example, consider improving the skills of existing employees, he said.
Before embarking on overseas recruitment they should consider issues such as language or communication difficulties, whether foreign workers would fit in with existing company culture, whether they would need training, how long they would stay, and incentives to retain them.
The director of Concrete & Quarry Engineering Manufacturing Services Ltd, Mr Gerard Fogarty, has a workforce of 90 and needs another 10 for his Tullamore business. His company, which supplies all types of concrete and quarry machinery, has no option but to consider overseas recruitment, he said.
"Everyone is short of staff in the midlands. Builders lucky to get any staff can spend the first few hours of a Monday morning trying to get people out of bed," he said.
Monaghan baker Mr Anthony Dinkins travelled to Lithuania to get staff. He describes his Lithuanian workers as excellent employees, and said he would have no problem recruiting from overseas again.