UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS

A booming economy with lots of cash flying about, more women in the workplace than ever before and vaulting expectations of what life can and should be like the result? Huge potential in the domestic service area as vast numbers of people search for someone to take care of the mundane aspects of their lives - but have trouble finding them.

We're not quite at the stage where people are hiring butlers, but domestic employment agencies are reporting a growing demand for housekeepers, cleaners and cooks. The word "servant" may be decidedly "un PC" these days, but the obliging persona it denotes is as sought after as ever.

Two career couples sick to death of arguing over who does the housekeeping have discovered a marriage saving solution: pay somebody else to do it. Even many women who are working full time in the home are now able to afford the luxury of paying for housekeeping, making more time for themselves and to be with their children.

What people want is to have the burden of the detail of running a home - the dust, the pawprints, the ashes in the grate and the grimy cupboards - lifted from them. They want someone who will know when the oven needs cleaning or the windows washing and just do it without fuss.

It seems reasonable enough. The problem is who wants a job that carries the stigma of being menial and underpaid.

"It's seen as someone else's dirty work," says Carmel Carolan, owner of a nationwide domestic agency, Small World Recruitment, in Co Louth. "They'll emigrate to the US and do it because there it's looked upon highly and there's bags of money to be made. But they won't do it here."

AS Irish living standards increase towards US levels a certain layer of middle class Irish society has become like a children's game of upstairs/downstairs, except that nobody wants to play the servants. Kathy Archer of Helpers, a Home Help and Nanny Agency in Galway, which recruits and places domestic staff nationwide, has seen a tremendous demand for housekeepers recently. She believes it should be taken seriously as a growth area of employment: the difficulty is that suitable people are extremely hard to find. The average unemployed young person today hasn't a clue about housework because he or she was waited on hand and foot by a mother who didn't even require her children to do their own laundry or ironing and the demise of domestic science in secondary schools hasn't helped either.

There is no formal training through FAS for housekeeping and house management and Archer would like to see the Government open its eyes to the employment possibilities and start training. She sees a growing need among high earning Irish families for the "house manager - a dynamic person who does it all".

House managers will often be found working for what the domestic employment agencies term "sensitive families". Translation well known people for whom discretion is paramount. The house manager is essentially a live in cook/housekeeper who is self motivated and can keep the house ticking over smoothly on her (the job almost invariably goes to a woman) own initiative. She expects to work 40-45 hours a week and in return have two days off, accommodation, food and a salary of £120-£250 a week - depending on age, experience and how desperately she is needed.

Agencies - which interview, do security checks and vet references in exchange for a fee - typically the equivalent of two weeks of the housekeeper's salary - encourage employers to pay PRSI, but at the end of the day this aspect of the relationship is private between employer and employee.

Duties include sole charge of house management and upkeep, cooking and shopping, cleaning, washing and ironing, tidying, telephone answering, feeding dogs and cats and supervising children after school only. A housekeeper would insist on a helper to assist with heavy work.

Kathy Archer says that "service industries like housekeeping are a growing area and the stigma has to be got over. I would say to people looking for work, forget about the receptionist courses and the computer courses. If you have a nice attitude, are gentle and kind, have a sense of humour, can cook, manage a house and have some experience with children, I can walk you into a job."

The best (and wealthiest) employers offer their house manager travel with the family to places such as Barbados and Aspen, along with good salaries and living quarters. At the very least the house manager would expect her own bedroom, sitting room, TV and bathroom.

But that's at the top end of the scale. For most people seeking household help, the lifestyle is a little more mundane. Word of mouth is the way most people get their once a week house cleaners and payment is cash only. Many families need more, however.

Carmel Carol an has seen a sudden upsurge in requests for housekeepers nationwide by two income families with high earnings.

But housekeeper/cooks are hard to find and will not work for low pay any more. Why should they?

Young women don't seem to want the job. "For so many people the attitude is, `why should I work when the dole is so good?'" says Kathy Archer. Older women are the most likely to find such work attractive. Archer has found that former hotel receptionists are a good bet. Girls who have "grown out of nannying" are also attracted to these housekeeping jobs, adds Carmel Carolan.

Such women expect at least £4.50 to £5 an hour, plus PRSI. They may work for several employers, devoting a few hours a day or a few days a week to each, or they may work a full 40-45 hour week for one employer.

Whether looking for a live in or live out housekeeper, employers shouldn't expect to dictate the terms of the job. Domestic employment agencies agree that it is the workers who are determining the job descriptions which, they are free to do because they re so much in demand. Many prospective housekeepers, for example, want nothing to do with the children. Others refuse to do "heavy" housekeeping. They'll be flexible if they are treated with respect.

The upstairs/downstairs master/servant relationship is a thing of the past. Domestic employees today want to be on a first name basis and don't want to be seen in a subservient position. Nor do today's housekeepers expect to sit at the kitchen table yapping with their employer over endless cups of tea. It's a delicate balance.

Young women who go to childcare courses and then expect a job where they spend the day nurturing the children are being unrealistic, Archer believes. The reality is that a "nanny" alone isn't what anyone needs unless they can afford a housekeeper as well. A full time mother in the home blends housework with childcare, spending as much time on household chores as she does on one to one interaction with her children. What women really need are mother's helps and "sole charge nannies" who care for children and do housework, says Archer. Both job titles cover the same work, except that a nanny has a childcare course behind her and would expect to be paid more.

Kathy O'Dwyer, of Job Options in Cork, a nationwide domestic recruiter, points out that elder care/light housekeeping is another growth area. Just as the two career couple needed childminders, they now need help with looking after their parents. Grandad sitting is another job of the future.

"The problem is really this in order for employers to fill these people need to want to do them and they will do them only if they have status and are well paid. Status means properly training people, which would require some Government investment. Better pay would require the Government to recognise that a job keeping house is fully fledged employment as deserving of employers' tax breaks as any other."

Archer believes that a family who creates a permanent job to the tune of £125-250 a week by hiring a housekeeper deserves to be treated as an employer by the Revenue Commissioners. The Revenue Commissioners also slight the "domestic" worker by rating her at a lower rate of PRSI, again reflecting the lack of status afforded to the job.

"It's not seen by the Government as a real job. And that's a bias against women," says Archer. Women do the job and women working outside the home for the most part are the employers.

Until that attitude changes, anyone searching for a housekeeper will find themselves with a difficult task ahead. But if you have already found that gem who will run your house and doesn't mind dealing with your older children to boot - give her a raise and don't let her go.