David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I am generally in favour of the thinking behind this. We had this discussion in the committee and had quite a number of representations on it. One of the things we have to be careful about is that our employment permit system at the moment is designed to cater for specific skills where there are needs, and that is fine. However, if somebody comes into the country under such a permit, are we saying then they can move to any area at all of the economy? We have to be careful. I have seen this in other jurisdictions where people come into one area, stay there for a short period and switch to something more lucrative. They are then possibly displacing workers as well, so there are other issues going on. We have to be careful of that happening. The 12-month time period might actually help there. It needs to be thought out in case of unintended consequences such as I have described.

There is also the issue of the cost involved. Is there a cost to the employee? I know there are certain costs involved in applying and so forth. If somebody comes in to one employer who has paid the costs and they move to someone else, is there some issue with cost there or is there reimbursement involved? There are a few things like that.

We have to be careful that somebody does not set themselves up as an agent to bring people here on an employment permit and get paid for it, either over or under the table, and then the person moves off somewhere else. It becomes a kind of gateway through which workers can come in for employment. We have to watch that as well.

Generally speaking, the thinking behind what my colleagues have brought forward is right but we probably need to tease it out a little bit more. I will be interested to hear what the Minister of State has to say.