Ms Fiona Ward:

As the Deputy said, the issue of undocumented workers falls within the remit of colleagues in the Department of Justice. We are guided by them when addressing the issues of undocumented workers. The matter is not provided for in the employment permit in this general scheme. However, we have what we call the reactivation employment permit, which was developed under the previous legislation, as the Deputy would know, to resolve issues regarding people who came in originally on an employment permit but, through no fault of their own, have fallen out of permission. The reactivation permit allows them to regularise their situation and we work with our colleagues in the Department of Justice on that.

On developing skills and apprenticeships, as I said to Deputy O'Reilly earlier, we work closely with the Department of Education and Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science on that. With regard to any changes that we would make to the list, we are cognisant of ongoing apprenticeship issues.

In respect of the agricultural permits, the pilot scheme was the first time that we opened up the regime to lower wage workers. One of the conditions for extending the permit was that they would engage and work to develop the career structures and skills of people who work in those occupations.

On seasonal workers and seasonable permits, we have looked at what happens in other jurisdictions that have seasonal workers. We are looking at putting in place a structure around that to protect their employment rights but also to facilitate the employment needs of those sectors that use seasonal occupations. We are examining, for example, whether to designate sectors that have seasonal workers, what duration the permit type should be, what the remuneration should be and what conditions should be attached to those permit types in respect of the obligations on employers regarding the provision of or access to suitable accommodation. We are also looking at fines for overstaying or for problems that attach to that. and also to ensure a labour market needs test is undertaken beforehand so that our labour market and the European Labour Authority market are tested in the first place.

On carers and care needs, healthcare assistants and home carers are currently ineligible for an employment permit. We engage with our colleagues in the Department of Health on this matter, as it is the policy Department. Until now, the Department has made submissions to the twice-yearly review. The evidence and information on the churn in care needs has to do with retention and recruitment issues rather than, necessarily, labour challenges. There is a review ongoing on this issue and we are meeting our colleagues in the Department of Health on that.

On the special circumstances permit, we have had instances where a special niche type of occupation has turned up that would have no disruptive effective effect to the economy and for which there is no training in Ireland and unlikely to be any training because the occupation is so specialised, but we have had to refuse that permit. The example we often use and cite is the heart strings butcher. Butchers are ineligible for an employment permit generally but a heart strings butcher is a specialist who makes musical instrument using heart strings. There is no training available for that type of work as it is a very specialised role. The permit is to cover those types of niche occupations. I hope I have covered all of the Deputy's questions.