Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is roughly 5%. It is a lot of money but not in the overall context of the budget.

I will return to the issue of HGV licences. There are a number of aspects to this. It involves the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in respect of work permits. A person in South Africa would apply to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment for a work permit. Once this person gets the work permit, he or she has to enter Ireland and get a PPS number to get a public services card. The person must also apply to the RSA for an exchange of licence. That was taking a considerable period of time. Once the person had that, he or she then had to do a course for two or three weeks before being able to take up the job. Deputy Lowry noted that in many cases, the person would be waiting for six months.

Regarding the proposal I would put to the Department of Transport and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, our understanding is that the RSA is involved in the work permit process so the bulk of the work involved in looking at exchange of licences should be done as a matter of course during the work permit verification process. Can this then reduce the time spent on the exchange of licence process within the RSA? I know discussions are ongoing. This is about reducing time periods and getting as much work as possible done while applicants are in their home countries so that when they come to Ireland, they can start work as quickly as possible. How far have those discussions between the Departments gone? I have gone through this in great detail. I have spoken to the relevant Departments so people will be aware of my interest in the matter. I looked at it forensically and it seems to me that it should be possible. We are looking at reducing the time period once people land in Ireland. Has exchange of licences been looked at to see whether we can streamline the process on the basis that a lot of the verification work has been done as part of the work permit process?