Ms Clare Dunne:

No. Our system is vacancy-led and employer-led. To become a trusted partner, one must be an employer because it is job related and related to a specific contract. We only deal with employers. We do not deal with federations or bodies of that nature. It is not difficult to become a trusted partner and there is no cost involved. If anything, it will save an employer a lot of time because he or she will do once for two years what currently must be done each time a permit is applied for. I accept that if somebody is just applying for one permit every five years they will not qualify as a trusted partner. If the employer is applying for two or three permits over a period, then we are not terribly stringent about that and would look favourably on that. It means that one would fill out all the employer details once and we keep them in our system. Any permits the employer needs over the following two years will be easier to apply for. It is quite a simple process.