Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

Since 2004, a key element of our labour market policy has been to ensure that general labour and skills needs are met from indigenous labour and from within the workforce of the European Union. For strategic skills or labour shortages in designated occupations in key economic sectors, our policy is to issue employment permits for the employment of non-EEA nationals for specific vacancies and in response to employer demand. The various schemes that give effect to such policies - green cards, work permits, spousal and dependant work permits and permits for intra-company transferees - were introduced following enactment of the Employment Permits Act 2006 and came into effect on 1 February 2007.

Currently, employment permit holders constitute approximately 1.2% of the total labour force. Given that our current employment permit arrangements were designed to be vacancy-driven, the number of permit applications and, consequently, the number of permits issued over the last two years have been showing a consistent downward trend.

In early 2009, we undertook a review of employment permit arrangements to ensure their ongoing relevance to the needs of the Irish labour market. As an outcome of this review, more stringent eligibility criteria were implemented for prospective new entrants to the work permit schemes from 1 June 2009 onwards. The main features of the new measures included expanding the ineligible list of occupations for which permits can be issued; increasing by 50% the fees charged at renewal stage for new permits issued after 1 June 2009; and a reduction in the number of occupations for which green cards are issued.

The Employment Permits Act 2006 allows for regular review of our economic migration policies and our Department keeps these policies under review, in line with the emerging needs of the labour market, on an ongoing basis.

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