David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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That is okay. Mr. O'Rourke might revert to us on that.

A question I have been raising quite a bit here, on which I have tabled parliamentary questions for the Minister for Justice this week and which I raised last week and the week before, concerns intra-company transfer employment permits. Several people and companies have raised this with me. We spoke about skill levels. One way of achieving high skill levels is to bring people in from a sister company or sister facility in another jurisdiction. While they might stay here for several years and their partners or spouses can come with them, those partners and spouses are not allowed to work. Some companies have told me that some of their top-level technical staff decided not to come here as a consequence, to the detriment of our ability to improve skills here. This is a matter that the Department of Justice should be aware of. I want to make IDA Ireland aware of it. I am not sure if it is. There are a couple of hundred intra-company transfers every year. The transfer of knowledge, skills and leadership is very important for companies. I am not sure whether IDA Ireland has a view on this. I think it has made a submission stating it is in favour of the change in this area, but I just wanted to bring it up here because I feel strongly about it.