The chief executive manager of South Dublin Council has said that "cost of accommodation and availability" is behind the local authority's high staff vacancy levels.
At the recent April meeting of the local authority on Tuesday, several councillors asked about staffing levels in the housing department to deal with a high volume of housing applications.
Addressing the queries, chief executive Danny McLoughlin said that there are staffing issues across the organisation. Mr McLoughlin said: "We don’t have specific staffing issues in relation to tenant-in-situ but we do have staffing issues across the organisation.
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"We also have a rate of vacancy of around 11% which is the highest it has been in three years. It normally trends at about 7% per annum."
Mr McLoughlin admitted that South Dublin County Council is having "particular difficulty with clerical, entry level staff". He said during the meeting: "It's a function of a buoyant labour market and a function of the relative rate of pay and what is needed to live in Dublin.
“That's an unfortunate fact across all disciplines regardless of where you work, it is difficult to employ people at entry level right now because of the cost of accommodation and availability," added Mr McLoughlin.
His response came after several councillors asked about staffing levels in the housing department to deal with a high volume of housing applications. Meanwhile, councillors also raised questions about the council's response to the homelessness with Fianna Fail Cllr Teresa Costello asking for a breakdown of support staff in place to support people in homeless accommodation.
In his response, the manager said: "The Council's homeless team currently has eight positions including one full-time outreach worker. The staff all advice and support homeless households in relation to their accommodation options and circumstances, working in conjunction with external resources in both the Dublin Region Homeless Executive Supports Workers and the Simon Outreach team.
"There are currently 511 homeless households on the Council's housing list, of which 313 are single person households," added the manager.
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