Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. McDonnell and Mr. Hughes for their presentations. I wish Mr. McDonnell well. He is showing good leadership in terms of staying at home. I hope he gets better soon.

My first question is for Mr. Hughes. A number of people raised employment permits. A number of businesses and companies in Tipperary in particular in the agricultural and steel sectors are struggling to get approvals for employment permits. Does he find that different sectors are being refused more than others? We heard the news last week or the previous week about more permits being available and more groups being brought into the system, in particular for jockeys and other such positions. Given that the demand has increased so much, has the number of staff dealing with the permits increased? Is the percentage of refusals higher than it was previously? As other speakers have said, there is a huge cost involved to the employer. At the moment, it seems that although more permits are being sanctioned, more people are also being refused permits. Do the refusals relate to different sectors or are they across the board?