Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I explained in the Dáil on Committee and Report Stages, providing for sector-specific employment permits would only be possible if the Department was to waive all checks on the employer, which I cannot accept. All employers of permit holders are on the Department's database which is regularly checked by the National Employment Rights Authority, NERA, as part of its employment permit compliance inspections. Last year, in many instances, informed by and with access to the employment permits database, the NERA made unannounced visits in areas of risk both during and outside office hours. These visits were aimed at establishing the level of compliance and identifying potential employment law breaches in the workplaces visited. Where issues are encountered, a full inspection is carried out. In 2013 the NERA detected 453 possible breaches of the Employment Permits Acts and there were 472 suspected breaches. A total of 48 employers were successfully prosecuted under the Employment Permits Acts in 2013. Almost 100 additional cases are at various stages of the prosecution process for hearing in 2014.
A sectoral permit regime where I, as Minister, would potentially have no line of sight to current employers of permit holders would run the risk of undermining this compliance work by the NERA and significantly weakening the ability of the State to control and monitor employers of permit holders. Part of the evaluation of the employment permit application is to check the bona fidesof the employer, as well as establishing that there are actual labour shortages for the job to be filled. Refusals occur where the employer is not deemed to be operating legitimately and where no such labour shortage is demonstrated. I consider that the Senator's amendment would make a targeted approach to meeting labour market skills shortages through permits impossible. For these reasons, I cannot accept the proposed amendments.
The Senator has also argued that the system binds an employee too closely to an employer. The requirement is to stay with an employer for 12 months initially. I do not think that is an unreasonable requirement in the vast majority of circumstances where an employer has gone to the expense and time of recruiting someone. However, in those limited cases in which, for example, abuse has occurred, my Department has always shown flexibility and will continue to do so on a case by case basis with the new reactivation scheme to facilitate such cases. The truth is that over one half of the permits issued are in cases in which employees are changing employer; therefore, the regime does not represent a lock-in, with no opportunity to move on. We try to deal with issues flexibly, but we still want employers to demonstrate that they meet the conditions for the granting of a permit in the first place.