Booming Ireland has jobs for Kiwis skilled in IT

By JULIE MIDDLETON

Irish companies facing serious skills shortages are courting clever Kiwis working in information technology.

Big Irish manufacturers such as Guinness, Boston Scientific and Metronics have sent recruiter Roisin McNamara to New Zealand with the aim of finding between 30 and 40 top people for positions in Ireland.

"The skills shortage in Ireland has been severe," says McNamara, a 28-year-old Kiwi by birth, who has spent about half her life in Ireland.

"Kiwis are being targeted because they have a strong reputation around the world as being dedicated professionals."

The co-founder of a Galway consultancy called CCP, she is based in Auckland until July 3, searching for "upper-quartile" people with at least three years' industry experience in IT with programming tools Java, VB, SAP, ActiveX, or Pearl Script.

She is also fishing for network specialists, electrical and instrumentation engineers and bilingual speakers of European languages for call centres.

"Ireland is on the door-step of Europe," she says.

The available jobs are based all over Ireland, she says, but particularly in the west of the country: Dublin, Galway, Cork, Sligo and Limerick.

She is also keeping an eye out for other professionals wanting to make a move to Ireland: "I'm looking at a range of skills as well as matching people to specific jobs."

Kiwis who make the move must be prepared to commit for 18 months, says McNamara. Benefits include sponsorship into a new job - "there are ways and means of getting a work permit" - and possibly even payment of airfares to the republic.

And if local applicants have Irish roots, she says, so much the better.

Most interest is expected from New Zealanders off on their "overseas experience" and Irish expatriates out here doing the same.

So what can be expected? Irish work culture and lifestyle, says McNamara, is not dissimilar to that in New Zealand.

"The way of life is similar, and New Zealanders adapt very well," she says. "They sometimes have trouble with the cold, but there are so many other countries [nearby] that you can fly to for a weekend."

Stay long enough, she says, and Kiwis could gain an Irish passport, and thus a ticket to work anywhere in Europe.

Ireland's unemployment has reached record lows of 3.7 per cent or, to put it another way, just 15,900 people, a far cry from the 15 and 16 per cent logged before the recent and remarkable regeneration of the Irish economy, driven by entrepreneurial attitudes and investment in the education system.

But the pace of this regeneration has led to such talent shortages at the top end of companies, says McNamara, that some business have been forced to defer or temporarily halt production.

"One client had to put a whole freeze on its manufacturing division for three months before finding the right person for a manufacturing job. It's hard to believe."

Ireland, in the guise of McNamara's consultancy, has gone knocking on doors before. A recruitment drive last November to Boston in the United States, where many Irish live, netted 60 senior-level people.

McNamara has been in New Zealand eight weeks, starting her search in Christchurch and Wellington, interviewing and collecting resumes.

In Auckland, she is based at sister company Montford May, but notes that there will be a big gap between those who inquire and those who commit.

"Only a small percentage will be most suitable - 25 to 35 per cent," she says.

Her host company while in Auckland also plans a recruitment drive in September and October, hoping to pick off the best of the crop living in Ireland and England but who are planning to return home or emigrate.

* To contact Roisin McNamara, phone 377-1090. E-mail addresses: mmc@montfordmay.co.nz (New Zealand) or michelle@ccp.ie (Ireland).