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

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I will give her the short answer first because I know that is what she wants. It is to be hoped we will be able to reopen that process within the next couple of weeks. That is the aim. That then takes a couple of months and decisions will probably be made around April or May at the latest. In a few weeks we will open the consultation and see where it goes after that.

I will give the Deputy the background to that as well. The occupations lists for employment permits are subject to twice-yearly reviews to ensure their ongoing relevance to the State’s human capital requirements. The next occupational lists review will, as I said, open in the next couple of weeks and submissions will be invited through a public consultation to be launched on our Department’s website. The issue the Deputy raised has been discussed quite a lot here. The Taoiseach, Tánaiste, the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and myself are happy to engage on this area and to try to work with this sector to see how we can resolve this. Permits are not the only solution. There are others as well. However, it is something we will look at again, as we did in the last two rounds as well.

My Department chairs the economic migration interdepartmental group with membership drawn from senior officials of key Departments and offices, including the Department of Social Protection. In this case, the relevant Department is the Department of Health. The aim of the group is to promote an integrated approach to addressing labour and skills shortages being experienced in the economy. This includes assessing proposals received through the public consultation for changes to the occupations lists. The Department of Social Protection plays a role in the review process through its provision of advice on the uptake of its tailored employment services by employers. In order to change the status of an occupation on the lists, there must be a clear demonstration that recruitment difficulties are solely due to shortages across the EEA, and not to other factors such as salary, employment conditions, or both.

The contracts of employment and employment terms and conditions being offered to home care workers are significant factors in the recruitment challenges faced by the sector, rather than a demonstrable labour market shortage. For example, issues such as failure to guarantee hours of work and the lack of travel and subsistence payments are factors in the recruitment challenges faced by the sector. Thus, as we review the sector an issue seems to be coming through. When you see a high number of part-time workers that is something we need to get in behind and interrogate a little more. I am conscious there are many in that sector who might choose to be part-time workers but it is something we need to tease out much more with the sector and the Departments of Health and Social Protection. We are willing to do that but to be very clear, the sector has been asked to engage much more with the Department of Social Protection to try to flesh this out as best we can.

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