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

I understand the procedures but I had understood there is an allocation to discuss the overall topic and I am trying to get the full answer in. The difficulty we have is that many employers are now contacting us looking for permits. They are asking us to go beyond the European labour market to find resources. That is a difficult piece to address when more than 100,000 people are in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment and more than 100,000 people are deemed to be long-term unemployed as well.

We are trying to engage with employers and sectors to find other solutions to source labour locally through education and training, through apprenticeships, through new training involving SOLAS, further education and training and so on. We are trying everything we can but even with that there is a difficulty and we will need to issue permits to try to fill these spaces. These sectors have clearly shown to me that they are missing out on opportunities to grow their businesses, which cannot continue.

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