Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I referenced in my opening speech, this an area where we are prepared to see if we can get to a better place. I think we all agree with the sentiments being put forward. We had good discussions at pre-legislative scrutiny, on Second Stage, and with some stakeholders and staff from the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland. I have asked officials to look at this again to see how we can deal with the concerns and sentiments around the time period. Is the 12-month period right or can we go with a little bit less? There needs to be some period of time just to protect everybody, but maybe 12 months is excessive and we are willing to look at that. There is also the issue of the ability to move more easily with a permit from an employer. The transfer from one employer to another is something we are prepared to look at.

I do not have wordings ready that I can put forward here but I will have them for Report Stage and we can make some good progress that will reflect the thinking. There is a general sense we have from nearly everyone who has contributed to this legislation, so we will try to reflect that. That is our aim. Officials have been working on it for the past couple of weeks but we just do not have it ready. We are on the same page. I will be able to show how far I can bring that with amendments and see what the members think.

Regarding amendment No. 33, part of that keeps the status quobecause we do try to allow for situations where someone is being exploited while keeping the 12 months. There is movement there anyway. We are on the same page here and I will bring back some recommendations on Report Stage if that is all right. We will catch most of the members' sentiments. It will involve changing our systems as well to be able to do the processing and IT and all that, but we are starting to engage with a new IT system on this. There is a chance to get his right.