Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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51. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment further to Parliamentary Question No. 80 of 11 May 2023, the number of employment permits issued in respect of non-EEA home care workers since the start of January 2023; the number of applications refused; the number of applications pending; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31545/23]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Changes to the employment permits system for workers from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) to address skills shortages in Ireland’s Home Care sector were announced on 16 December 2022.

This followed constructive engagement with the Home Care Sector. In March 2022, a cross-departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group (SWAG) was established by the D/Health to examine the strategic workforce challenges in publicly and privately provided frontline carer roles in home-care and long-term residential care for older people. The report from this group contained 16 recommendations spanning areas of recruitment, pay and conditions, barriers to employment, training and professional development and sectoral reform. The report of this group recommended that the Government enable the employment of non-EU/EEA care workers in Ireland for roles in the sector.

In line with this recommendation, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment introduced an amendment that established a quota of 1,000 General Employment Permits for care workers and home carers, as defined in Standard Occupational Classification code 6145.

Since the introduction of this quota, 138 permits have been granted, and 13 applications have been refused. A monthly breakdown is set out in the table below.

The precise number of applications awaiting processing in this category cannot be determined as these applications have yet to be processed and assigned an appropriate SOC (Standard Occupational Classification) - however it is estimated that there are approximately 15 applications awaiting processing.