Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

The danger with that proposal is that our approach is vacancy-driven. When an employment vacancy occurs, that can be the catalyst for an application by an employer or an employee for a work permit. We do not want a free-for-all to develop, whereby somebody utilises a vacancy to get a work permit and then goes somewhere else within two months. That would bring the entire system into disarray. There are no problems in the vast majority of cases in which employers bring people to Ireland, look after them well and retain them as part of their good human resources policy. I will keep this issue under review. If Deputy Varadkar is aware of particular cases, and is able to give the employer's side of the story, I will listen to him. We should be careful not to undermine the entire edifice we have constructed in this respect.

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