Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The current waiting time is about 11 weeks for trusted partners, people with regular engagement permits, and 17 weeks for those who are not, which is extremely long. Waiting times were considerably less than that up to a couple of months ago. It is still better than most countries we compete with. Along with the Tánaiste, I met the Secretary General and officials from the section to discuss having additional staff resources to process those applications. Those staff are now working extremely hard and taking on overtime and doing everything they can to try to get these permits dealt with. We will reduce the waiting time quite quickly.

July is the usual rotation time for many doctors in the system. The cyberattack on the HSE greatly complicated the process of application for permits for health staff. As the Deputy will understand, owing to the Covid pandemic, we needed to focus on permits for health staff. That took up considerable resources but we are also dealing with this.

There have been 26 submissions to the review of those who qualify for a permit or do not. The sector the Deputy mentioned has made submissions. We are working through them and we are engaging across each Department to see how we can adjust those lists. I ask for the Deputy's assistance in this regard. It is a complicated situation for us. Many companies have approached me seeking to bring labour in.

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