Merrion Plans Staff Accommodation
The Merrion hotel in Dublin is looking at building accommodation for staff close to the hotel against a backdrop of soaring rents and constrained supply that are making it increasingly difficult for some of its employees to afford to live in the city.
The hotel’s General Manager Peter MacCann told The Irish Times that it is "looking" at building the accommodation at the rear of a property that it owns on Merrion Square, along with other options. This would be used to house staff on low and middle incomes who are finding it difficult to source rental accommodation in the city.
"People on salaries that range from let’s say €13 to €18 an hour can’t really afford accommodation in the city centre," he said, "So they’re forced out to Bettystown [in Meath], Gorey [in Wicklow] and all over the place. Commute times and public transport availability for shift work in a place like this just doesn’t work."
"We’ve looked at whether we should take a house in Bray and buy a bus and run our own shuttle service. We’ve looked at houses in west Dublin, we’ve looked at houses in Meath. We currently have four staff houses in the city that we are renting that we subsidise. You ask any hotel, and we’re all going into the property business because we need to find places for people to stay so they can come to work."