Aontú’s Mary T Sweeney: 'Let’s make the homes of Donegal full again'

Aontú’s Donegal candidate has warmly welcomed her party’s innovative proposal to bring thousands of much-needed Donegal workers home to help fill vital roles.

Under a new plan called “Operation Shamrock”, Aontú proposes to attract key Irish construction workers who have moved abroad to come home. This will include a relocation package of €5,000 in vouchers to spend on flights and accommodation for workers who have left Ireland more than two years ago.

Local candidate in the Donegal constituency, Mary T Sweeney says: “Aontú is taking a strong move to address housing, and also our high brain drain, as young highly trained Irish men and women are leaving the country for better prospects abroad. There are hundreds of thousands of Irish construction workers building houses at the moment. The problem is up to half of these are building houses in Australia and Canada and we need them in Donegal.

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“Speaking from personal experience my own daughter left for Australia with fifteen of her college classmates from Donegal. These are our sons and daughters who have left the country because good jobs and accommodation are only a dream here at home. Their families have been torn apart and communities are growing silent about their loss. We want to reunite Irish families here in Ireland.

“The plan would also provide a €10,000 tax credit for these specific workers spread over three years. The worker would have to remain within the Irish state working in the sector for four years after moving home. To retain our Irish staff there would also be a push in increase wages, terms and conditions for these sorely needed sectors--Many diverse sectors would be covered from Nurses and doctors to Irish Gardai, electricians, plumbers, construction workers, teachers, cares and firefighters”.

“After the financial crash, I never thought that we would again be led to a situation where our youth had to leave to survive. Aontú will also improve workforce planning in radically increase the number of construction apprentices from 1,500 a year to 3,000 a year. All promises of house construction from other parties conveniently leave out the fact that we simply don't have the people with skills to do the work”.