"average Dublin house prices should fall to ‘the €300,000 mark" according to Many Lou McD.

I know them not being interested in construction jobs is part of it. I believe a lot of younger people are put off it because they've seen so many in the generation before having to emigrate after the last crash. Yet here we are in a similar (hopefully not so severe) boom to bust cycle.

I can't speak for Pharma but I believe IT pays Software Apprentices far more than 8 euro an hour.

And there's been all sorts of pathways developed for people to switch careers with paid one-year conversion courses.

Skills shortages didn't start with Covid by a long-shot. Maybe the workers you met were just using that as a reference point? Here's an article from 2014 talking about shortages. Yet 10 years later there have been no incentives to attract more people to the area.

https://www.thejournal.ie/construction-report-30-increase-2018-1333087-Feb2014/

As a population we're apartment averse and I'm not surprised given the shocking quality of apartments built during the Celtic Tiger years and post 2008 crash. Medium to high density apartments that are suitable for families should be considered around transit areas like train/luas/dart stops and main bus thoroughfares.

Not with remote working.

IT and pharma undergraduates are being paid €0 per hour during their studies. Most courses now have a significant component of unpaid intern work. Much better off financially to be an apprentice.

No, because most public sector employees (AFAIK) have a mix of in-office and remote days. I don't think 100% remote work is a thing.

So if you decentralise a department to Letterkenny, then everyone working there needs to be able to get to Letterkenny 3 days a week.

True, I think there's also the context of this article and common understanding of the term average.

It's quite clear what the article was about and what SF intentions are, namely to make new houses available at circa 300k in Dublin.

Any effort to catch up Mary Lou on her use of the term just looks very much like distraction to me.

If you read EOB plan, it does not mean that house prices in Dublin will fall to 300k.

The plan implies that the State will sell new houses, with subsidies and restrictions on sale, to a subset of buyers, for about 300k.

Does this mean that the prices of all other similar houses will fall to 300k? No.

Well you're fairly narrowing the goalposts now talking about undergraduate degrees only!

There's a plethora of incentives to retrain people in IT and pharma. Pretty much nothing for construction.

Besides I'd suggest a fair degree of kids considering construction trades might not consider college as an alternative, at least that was the situation when I was at that age.

When I started an apprenticeship, you could afford a room in a house share and a night out on the wages. That ain't happening now. So if you don't have financial support from parents it's likely you're only option will be a higher paid entry level job.

The median price could get to 300K, but only if you build a shed tonne of house for 300K and under, which at the moment its pretty hard to do.

Even the under 300K houses for sale right now in Dublin would need another 50-100K spent on them to bring them up to current standards based on todays costs.

"Get their act together and address the problem properly" do you have suggestions?

I've not denied this but also I could live independently on an apprentice salary at the time. That would be impossible at today's 8euro per hour minus college fees.

There's no denying either that this government has incentivized people towards other careers through paid conversion courses and higher paid apprenticeships, but not done the same for construction trades.

This was done because these industries, namely IT and pharma, were deemed strategically important. Yet construction, despite the obvious devastating outcomes of ignoring it, was not.