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

The question related to the permit, so I will focus on that in a moment. In general, we try to analyse and identify any areas where there are critical skills gaps or a shortage of labour. The Department regularly engages with stakeholders through the various forums and also individually with different sectors and groups. We carry out a detailed analysis twice a year on every sector in respect of which shortages have been identified. Where evidence that is gathered clearly identifies shortages, we react and change the process for permits, something I will return to presently.

That is only one measure. The best way to deal with labour shortages is to predict them and invest the funding and various supports in all levels of education to address that. That is what we try to do to work more clearly and directly with the various sectors. Following reforms of the past ten years, we have a very enterprise-facing education system, through further education and training and all the commitments and announcements regarding apprenticeships, skills and on-the-job training, along with investment in higher education, research and innovation to drive automation. Every effort is made to deal with skills gaps and to work with the relevant sectors.

The Deputy asked about the employment permit scheme, a regime designed to facilitate the entry of appropriately qualified non-EEA workers to fill skills and labour shortages in Ireland. This objective must, however, be balanced by the need to ensure no suitably qualified Irish or EEA nationals are available to undertake the work and that the shortage is genuine. We look for evidence, backed up by the parent Department, that the shortage is genuine and every effort is made to source that labour or talent locally. It is sometimes difficult to explain.

If there are, potentially, 40,000 people on the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, and another 150,000 people on long-term or short-term social welfare, it is sometimes hard to explain how we also need to bring in other talent. We try to close those gaps by working through the Department of Social Protection and with employers through the range of schemes, such as pathways to work, to join the dots there and try to get people who have various skills, and through upskilling if needs be, to fill those job vacancies. Where that cannot happen we use the permits scheme to bring people in as well.

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