Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

Ultimately, the judgment I am making concerns what the most efficient system is. There is a considerable amount of paperwork involved in making an application for a work permit and clearly there are huge advantages for the Department in knowing who the employer is and having that paperwork in as well as the employee's. On balance it seems more sensible and more workable in the vast majority of cases if the employer would be charged with making the application but that the work permit would be issued to the employee. That addresses the major concerns that have come to our notice in recent times. The only good thing to have emerged from recent scandals in this respect is that workers who are foreign nationals have become aware oftheir rights and are much more likely to join a trade union or take whatever other action is needed.

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