What does Optus Glean charge per hour?

We do not. Commercial and contract cleaning is delivered to a defined scope on a fixed monthly fee, paid by Direct Debit, with an annual indexed review. Per-hour pricing is for ad-hoc and domestic work, neither of which we do. The fixed monthly fee covers the named primary cleaner, the named relief, all consumables where contracted, all equipment, and the management overhead of running the contract.

What happens if Optus Glean's cleaner is sick?

The named relief is deployed and the site contact is notified by 06:30 on the morning of the absence. The relief is already vetted, inducted, and trained on the site's colour-coded system and IPC standard, so the standard of clean does not change. Substitution is Optus Glean's operational problem, not the buyer's risk to absorb.

How is the fixed monthly fee set?

The fee is set against a defined scope of work — frequency, areas, tasks, consumables, equipment — agreed at contract signature and documented in the service specification. The fee is reviewed once a year against the Consumer Price Index and the Contract Cleaning ERO rate movement, with any change communicated 60 days in advance of the review date. There are no in-year variations unless the scope itself changes.

Why are cleaning services in Louth so inconsistent?

It is a workforce-design problem rather than an effort problem. Most operatives in the sector are part-time or casual, and many also hold healthcare assistant shifts in nursing homes and acute care. When a care shift is offered, the cleaning shift is dropped. Optus Glean removes that dynamic by employing operatives PAYE on guaranteed hours, so the cleaning role is not the secondary income.

What is the difference between PAYE and casual cleaning contracts?

A PAYE-employed cleaner has a contract of employment, statutory annual leave, paid sick leave under the Sick Leave Act 2022, employer PRSI, pension auto-enrolment, and a fixed weekly schedule. A casual or self-employed cleaner has none of those. The risk of a missed clean sits with the buyer in a casual model and with the provider in a PAYE model. Optus Glean is structured so that the risk sits with us.

How does Optus Glean stop cleaners disappearing for healthcare shifts?

We make the cleaning role the better work. Pay is set above the Contract Cleaning ERO floor (€14.80 per hour, 2026). Hours are guaranteed and rostered weeks in advance. Annual leave is paid. Pension contributions are made. The cleaner has no incentive to substitute a less predictable casual healthcare shift.

Why are some commercial cleaning quotes for Louth so much cheaper than others?

Quotes for the same scope range from around €750-1,100 per month at the lower end to €1,500-1,700 per month at the upper end. The differential is almost entirely driven by employment model. Lower quotes assume a casual workforce where the provider carries no employment risk and passes service-continuity risk to the buyer. Higher quotes assume a PAYE workforce where the provider absorbs that risk.

Is the ERO rate a minimum or a market rate in Louth?

The Contract Cleaning ERO rate of €14.80 per hour is a statutory minimum set under the Labour Court's Sectoral Employment Order. It is a floor, not a ceiling. Providers who pay at the floor are competing for staff with adjacent care-sector roles paying €15-€17 per hour, which is why retention is poor across the lower end of the market.

What evidence is there that this workforce pattern is real?

It is visible in CSO Labour Force Survey data on multi-jobbing in accommodation, administrative support, and human health and social work activities, and in the Workplace Relations Commission's enforcement record under the Contract Cleaning ERO. Practice managers confirm it experientially: the same operative who cleans the practice on Monday is on a healthcare assistant rota at a nearby nursing home on Wednesday.

What happens if my cleaner is sick or on leave?

The named relief is deployed. The site contact is notified by 06:30 on the morning of an unplanned absence, or at the start of the leave period for a planned absence. The relief is already vetted, inducted on the site, and trained on the same colour-coded system and IPC standard as the primary cleaner. The task list, the equipment, and the time window do not change. The clean is delivered to the same standard.

Will I get a different cleaner every week?

No. The model is a named primary cleaner with a named relief, both fixed to the site for the duration of the contract. The relief only attends when the primary is genuinely unavailable — sick day, annual leave, training day — and it is the same named relief each time, not a rotating pool. Long-term continuity of the same two people on a site is what makes the standard of clean stable.

How does Optus Glean handle long-term cover?

For absences longer than two weeks, cover is drawn from the wider Optus Glean trained bench. Every operative on the bench is PAYE-employed, Garda-vetted, and trained to the same documented HIQA-aligned IPC standard, so continuity of standard is preserved. The buyer is informed of the cover plan, the named individuals involved, and the expected duration at the point the long-term absence is identified.

What happens if my primary cleaner leaves Optus Glean?

The relief is promoted to primary on a planned timetable. A new relief is recruited, vetted, inducted on the site, trained on the colour-coded system and IPC standard, and introduced to the buyer before the handover takes effect. There is no scenario in which the buyer discovers, after the fact, that their cleaner has changed. Continuity is engineered, not improvised.

Cleaning Company Louth | Commercial & Industrial Cleaning

€6.5M Public Liability

€13M Employer's Liability

Garda Vetted Staff

24/7 Emergency Response

Safe Pass Certified

The Optus Glean promise: predictability

Three pillars. Three commitments. No exceptions.

Predictable cost. One fixed monthly fee, set against a defined scope and an annual indexed review. No variable hours. No surprise invoices. No padded callout charges. Budgeted once, paid by Direct Debit, reviewed once a year.

Predictable presence. The site is cleaned every day it is meant to be cleaned. A named primary cleaner is rostered to your contract, supported by a named relief who is already vetted, inducted, and trained on the same colour-coded system and IPC standard. The schedule does not depend on whether one person is available on one day.

Predictable freedom. A single point of accountability. One contract. One named manager. One number to call. Cleaning is no longer a problem the site has to manage — it is a service that runs.

Why cleaning in Louth is structurally hard to get right

Most cleaning provision in Ireland — including in healthcare-adjacent settings — is delivered by a workforce that is structurally part-time and casual. A significant proportion of operatives across the sector also work as healthcare assistants in nursing homes, residential care, and acute hospitals. Cleaning shifts are typically taken when healthcare shifts are not available, and released when they are. This pattern is consistent with CSO labour data on accommodation, food, and administrative-support employment, and it is the underlying reason that buyers across Ireland encounter inconsistency from agencies they have contracted in good faith.

The pattern is reinforced by two background pressures specific to Louth. Housing affordability limits the catchment for any role paying at or near the minimum wage. The Contract Cleaning Employment Regulation Order rate of €14.80 per hour for 2026, set under the Labour Court's sectoral employment framework, sits close enough to flexible care-sector pay that operatives drift toward whichever shift pays slightly more on the day. Both pressures pull cleaning staff away from contracted shifts and toward casual healthcare work.

The result, from the buyer's perspective, is the experience most practice managers, facilities leads, and procurement officers in Louth describe: a clean that is half-completed when the contracted cleaner is available, missed entirely when they are not, and accompanied by recurring conversations with the agency about cover that may or may not arrive.

This is the structural problem Optus Glean is built to solve. Our operatives are fully PAYE-employed with guaranteed weekly hours, paid leave, and pension contributions under Irish auto-enrolment. They are paid above the ERO floor deliberately — because the structural reliability of the service depends on the cleaner choosing to remain in the role rather than rotating through casual healthcare shifts. A named primary cleaner is assigned to your site, supported by a named relief, both Garda-vetted and trained to Optus Glean's documented HIQA-aligned IPC standard.

Commercial Cleaning Across County Louth

County Louth is Ireland’s smallest county by area but one of its most economically dynamic. With two major towns — Drogheda (population 45,000+) and Dundalk (population 42,000+) — connected by the M1 motorway, Louth punches well above its weight in terms of commercial activity. The county sits at the intersection of the Dublin–Belfast economic corridor, giving it strategic importance for businesses that need access to both the Republic and Northern Ireland markets.

Optus Glean provides commercial cleaning, specialist cleaning, laundry services, and facilities management across all of County Louth. Our head office in Glaslough, Co. Monaghan is less than 45 minutes from Dundalk, making Louth one of our core service territories with the fastest response times outside our home county.

The M1 Corridor: Pharma, Tech, and Manufacturing

The M1 motorway corridor through Louth has attracted significant investment from multinational companies. Dundalk’s Finnabair Industrial Estate and the IDA Business & Technology Park host companies including National Pen (employing 600+ staff in their European headquarters), Prometric (global testing and assessment services), PayPal’s European operations centre, and Xerox Technology Ireland. Nearby, WuXi Biologics operates a major biopharmaceutical manufacturing campus at Mullagharlin, one of the largest single investments in the region. Drogheda’s industrial base includes Coca-Cola HBC’s bottling and production facility at Donore Road, Boyne Valley Group (food production), and the Drogheda Business Park on the Donore Road industrial corridor.

Dundalk’s position on the Dublin–Belfast economic corridor has also attracted logistics operators to the M1 Retail Park and Dundalk Retail Park, while the Port of Drogheda handles bulk cargo and generates demand for warehouse and cold-store cleaning across its quayside logistics hub. Takeda Pharmaceutical previously operated in the county and left behind a skilled pharma workforce that continues to support the sector.

We provide industrial cleaning, office cleaning, and specialist cleaning for manufacturing, pharmaceutical, and technology companies across the county. Our teams are trained in GMP-compliant cleaning protocols for pharmaceutical environments and can operate across day, evening, and night shifts to avoid disrupting production schedules.

Healthcare Cleaning in Louth

Louth has one of the busiest hospitals in the country — Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, a major acute hospital serving the north-east region. Louth County Hospital in Dundalk provides day surgery, outpatient, and diagnostic services. The county also has a dense network of GP surgeries, dental practices, physiotherapy clinics, and primary care centres in both Drogheda and Dundalk.

We provide healthcare cleaning in full compliance with HSE infection prevention and control standards. Our healthcare contracts include colour-coded cleaning systems, hospital-grade disinfectants, terminal cleaning capability, and HIQA audit-ready documentation. For GP surgeries and dental practices, we provide out-of-hours cleaning to avoid disrupting patient appointments.

Dundalk: DkIT, Retail, and Border Economy

Dundalk is the county town of Louth and sits just 8 kilometres south of the Northern Ireland border. Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) is a major campus employer with over 5,000 students, generating demand for student accommodation cleaning, lecture hall maintenance, and laboratory cleaning. The town centre has extensive retail including the Marshes Shopping Centre, Long Walk Shopping Centre, and a busy high street anchored by Clanbrassil Street. The Dundalk Retail Park on the Inner Relief Road and the surrounding business parks — including the Xerox Technology Park and Finnabair Business & Technology Park — add significant commercial cleaning demand.

The border location makes Dundalk a natural hub for cross-border commerce. Companies such as PayPal, National Pen, and Prometric employ thousands of staff in modern office campuses that require daily contract cleaning. Louth County Hospital on the Dublin Road provides day surgery and outpatient services, complementing GP surgeries and the primary care centre. We provide contract cleaning for offices, retail units, warehouses, and distribution centres across the town.

Drogheda: Gateway to the Boyne Valley

Drogheda is one of the largest towns in Ireland and a major Dublin commuter hub with a population exceeding 45,000. The town has a thriving retail sector centred on Scotch Hall Shopping Centre (anchored by Penneys and Dunnes Stores) and the Laurence Town Centre, plus a growing professional services and financial sector along the West Street and Dyer Street commercial corridors. Drogheda is the gateway to the Boyne Valley tourism region — Newgrange, Knowth, the Battle of the Boyne visitor centre at Oldbridge, and Monasterboice round tower all draw significant visitor numbers.

Hotels such as the D Hotel on the Scotch Hall complex, the Westcourt Hotel, Scholar’s Townhouse, and the Boyne Valley Hotel & Country Club serve both business and tourism visitors. The Port of Drogheda, one of the oldest ports in Ireland, supports a logistics and distribution cluster along the quays and the Donore Road industrial area. Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, a major acute teaching hospital, is the largest single employer in the town and its cleaning standards must meet the most stringent HSE infection prevention protocols.

We provide hotel cleaning, retail cleaning, and office cleaning across Drogheda. For hospitality clients, we offer integrated cleaning and laundry services under a single contract.

Towns We Serve in Louth

Drogheda — Largest town; retail, offices, healthcare, hospitality, industrial
Dundalk — County town; DkIT, Finnabair, Marshes, border economy
Ardee — Market town; retail, healthcare, agriculture services
Dunleer — M1 junction town; logistics, distribution
Carlingford — Premium tourism village; Four Seasons Hotel, Carlingford Lough adventure centre, medieval heritage trail
Termonfeckin — Residential; Highfield Golf & Country Club
Clogherhead — Fishing port; food processing, tourism
Blackrock — Dundalk suburb; residential, retail

Our Louth Service Range

Sectors We Serve in Louth

Hospitality — Hotels, B&Bs, restaurants, pubs
Healthcare — Hospitals, GP surgeries, dental, primary care
Corporate — Offices, business parks, tech companies
Education — DkIT, schools, student accommodation
Construction — Builder’s cleans, sparkle cleans, site maintenance

Neighbouring Counties

County Monaghan — Our head office county, directly west
County Meath — South along the M1 and Boyne Valley
County Cavan — West via the N53 through Kingscourt

Cleaning Prices in County Louth

Louth cleaning rates reflect the county’s position on the Dublin–Belfast economic corridor. Drogheda rates trend slightly higher due to Dublin commuter belt influence, while Dundalk and northern Louth are competitively priced. All quotes are fixed-price after a site survey.

Service	Price Range	Basis
Office Cleaning	€15 – €20/hr	Per operative hour
Industrial Cleaning	€18 – €35/hr	Per operative hour
Healthcare Cleaning	€15 – €22/hr	Per operative hour
End of Tenancy	€180 – €450	Per property
Post-Construction	€350 – €1,500	Per property
Carpet Cleaning	€2.50 – €5/sqm	Per square metre
Window Cleaning	€80 – €350	Per visit
Pressure Washing	€3 – €8/sqm	Per square metre

Key Industries and Employers in Louth

County Louth’s economy is anchored by major employers across pharmaceuticals, technology, food production, healthcare, education, and logistics. We are proud to serve businesses across every sector in the county.

PayPal — European operations centre, Dundalk
WuXi Biologics — Biopharmaceutical manufacturing, Dundalk
Coca-Cola — Bottling and production facility, Drogheda
Fyffes — International fruit importer headquarters, Dundalk
DkIT (Dundalk Institute of Technology) — Major campus employer and student accommodation
Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital — Major acute hospital, Drogheda
Louth County Hospital — Day surgery and outpatient services, Dundalk
Scotch Hall Shopping Centre — Major retail destination, Drogheda
Marshes Shopping Centre — Retail hub, Dundalk
Drogheda Port — Logistics, warehousing, and distribution

What Louth Businesses Say About Us

“We switched to Optus Glean for our production floor and office cleaning last year. The difference is night and day — consistent teams, proper documentation, and they understand the GMP requirements without us having to explain every time.”

— Operations Manager, Manufacturing Plant, Dundalk

“Managing cleaning across a busy shopping centre means I need a contractor who turns up every single day, no excuses. Optus Glean have not missed a shift since we started the contract. Their supervisor is on-site daily and the standards are excellent.”

— Centre Manager, Retail Centre, Drogheda

“The port environment is tough on cleaning contractors — dust, diesel, irregular hours. Optus Glean adapted to our schedule and brought the right equipment from day one. Very professional operation.”

— Port Operations Supervisor, Drogheda Port

Frequently Asked Questions About Cleaning in Louth

How much does commercial cleaning cost in Louth?

Commercial cleaning in County Louth typically costs as a fixed monthly fee per site in 2026. Drogheda rates tend slightly higher due to Dublin commuter belt influence. Optus Glean provides fixed-price contracts based on detailed site surveys.

Do you clean pharmaceutical facilities in Louth?

Yes. Louth has a significant pharma and life sciences cluster along the M1 corridor. We provide GMP-compliant cleaning, cleanroom maintenance, and production area cleaning for pharmaceutical companies in Dundalk and Drogheda.

Can you provide cleaning in both Drogheda and Dundalk?

Absolutely. We operate across the entire county. Both towns are core service areas, and our Monaghan head office gives us the fastest response times in the north-east region.

Do you provide healthcare cleaning in Louth?

Yes. We serve healthcare facilities including GP surgeries, dental practices, and primary care centres across Drogheda and Dundalk with HSE-compliant, HIQA audit-ready cleaning services.

What makes Louth a priority area for Optus Glean?

Louth borders our home county of Monaghan. Dundalk is under 45 minutes from our head office. This proximity means faster response times, easier site supervision, and the ability to deploy additional resources at short notice.

Do you cover both Dundalk and Drogheda?

Yes. Both Dundalk and Drogheda are core service areas for Optus Glean. Dundalk is under 45 minutes from our Glaslough head office, and Drogheda is accessible via the M1. We have dedicated teams serving both towns and all areas in between, including Ardee, Dunleer, and Carlingford.

How close is your head office to Louth?

Our head office in Glaslough, Co. Monaghan is less than 45 minutes from Dundalk via the N53 and under 75 minutes from Drogheda. Louth is one of our closest counties and benefits from the fastest response times outside Monaghan itself.

Do you clean logistics warehouses near the port?

Yes. Drogheda Port and the surrounding logistics and distribution facilities are within our core service area. We provide industrial cleaning for warehouses, loading bays, cold storage units, and distribution centres. Our teams operate flexible shifts including nights and weekends to avoid disrupting logistics operations.

How Optus Glean handles staff shortages

Every Optus Glean contract is staffed on a redundancy model rather than a single-person model. A named primary cleaner is assigned to the site at contract start. A named relief is assigned alongside them. Both are PAYE-employed by Optus Glean, both are Garda-vetted, both are inducted on the site's specific layout, access protocols, and colour-coded equipment system, and both are trained to the same documented HIQA-aligned IPC standard. Substitution is built into the contract from the first day, not arranged on the day cover is needed.

Sick day cover. When the primary cleaner is unable to work, the named relief is deployed. The site site contact is notified by 06:30 on the morning of the absence by SMS or email, with the name of the relief who is attending. The relief follows the same task list, uses the same equipment, and finishes within the same window. The standard of clean is unchanged because the relief was prepared for this scenario before the absence happened.

Annual leave cover. Annual leave is rostered weeks in advance and the relief is scheduled to cover the full leave period. The site is informed at the start of the leave period — not on the morning leave begins. This is the same model used in clinical rota management: known absences are pre-staffed, not improvised.

Long-term cover. If the primary cleaner is absent for more than two weeks (extended illness, parental leave, bereavement leave), cover is drawn from the wider trained bench rather than relying on the single named relief. The site is kept informed of the cover plan, the named individuals involved, and the expected duration. Continuity of standard is maintained because every operative on the bench is trained to the same documented standard.

Permanent reassignment. If the primary cleaner moves to a new permanent role within Optus Glean — promotion, relocation, retirement — the relief is promoted to primary on a planned timetable, a new relief is trained on the site, and both are introduced to the site before the handover takes effect. There is no day on which the site discovers, after the fact, that their cleaner has changed.

Substitution is Optus Glean's operational problem, not the site's risk to absorb. The buyer pays a fixed monthly fee for a defined scope to be delivered, every day it is meant to be delivered. The mechanism by which we deliver it — primary, relief, bench, retraining — is our cost to manage and our risk to carry.

Last reviewed: 2026-05-06

Commercial & Specialist Cleaning Services in County Louth