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

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. He is right it is one that we are aware of, as a Department and as a Government. It has been raised often through questions in the House, with the Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, also saying that this is something he felt might be addressed and looked at through the permit process this year. As the Deputy knows, the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, is working in the area and has put together the strategic workforce working group to look at this. It is due to report back in September. As I will be taking a Topical Issue matter on that later, I will not give the full answer in respect of it now. However, it is an issue she is trying to address. I have engaged with her on it to see if, before September, there are ways we can bring forward solutions under the categories the Deputy has mentioned in regard to permits. It is something we are aware of and are looking at.

The Deputy is right that many families are waiting for support. The funding is approved through the Government and its Departments, but it is having the personnel to implement this that we need to try to address. We need to look at it as a combination of solutions. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, is taking the long-term view on how to address this permanently through a workforce planning process. Hopefully, that report will give us something to work on come the autumn.

In regard to the issues around the upcoming review of the permanent situation and how it can be addressed, I want to explain what the permits scheme is about. Ireland's employment permit system is designed to accommodate the arrival of non-EEA nationals to fill skills and labour gaps for the benefit of our economy in the short to medium term, but this objective must be balanced with the need to ensure there are no suitably qualified Irish or EEA nationals available to undertake the work and that the shortage is a genuine one. The Deputy will know this as he has often engaged with the system, and quite successfully too.

The system is managed through the operation of the critical skills and ineligible occupations list which determines employments that are either in high demand or ineligible for an employment permit, where there is evidence that there should be sufficient availability of those skills in the domestic and EEA labour market. In order to ensure that the employment permit system is aligned with current labour market intelligence, these lists undergo regular evidence-based review guided by relevant research and published stakeholder consultation, and incorporate the views of the economic migration interdepartmental group, which includes representatives from the Department of Health.

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Account is also taken of upskilling and training initiatives and other known contextual factors such as the ending of the pandemic unemployment payment schemes, the Ukrainian humanitarian crisis and their impact on the labour market. Currently, home care workers are not eligible for an employment permit, as Deputy O'Sullivan correctly flagged. While submissions from the home care sector were considered, the most recently concluded review announced last October did not recommend removal of the occupation of care workers and home care workers from the ineligible occupations list as the evidence suggested that the contracts of employment on offer and employment terms and conditions being offered are factors in the recruitment challenges faced by the sector rather than a demonstrable labour market shortage. Since then I have engaged with some of the providers in the sector to try to analyse this data with them and to highlight that it is a concern for us that a high percentage of the workers in the sector work part time which points to the possibility that maybe there is an option to have long-term contracts or full hour contracts as well. They understand our concerns and I understand they are now preparing a submission for the next review which will come up quite soon.

In order to add or remove an occupation from the lists, evidence is sought demonstrating that recruitment difficulties are solely due to genuine shortages across the EEA and not to other factors such as salary or employment conditions. This is what I outlined in my meetings with the sector and also in conversation with the Minister of State, Deputy Butler. Sectors in general are also required to engage structurally with the public employment service of the Department of Social Protection. The review process invites stakeholders through the public consultation to provide data to substantiate claims of lack of skills or labour available in a detailed evidence-based business case. While Deputy O'Sullivan correctly highlighted the need from the client point of view and from the point of view of patients who need help and home care, we also expect the providers to show they have made every effort to source staff and to provide good pay and terms and conditions within Ireland and the EEA and to engage with the Department of Social Protection. A longer term approach is required, as was touched on at the start by the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, but in the short term, there will be an opportunity when we open this system again for review of employment permits to make those conditions and have evidence to show it. I hope to have that review open within the next couple of weeks. Then we will be able to judge that over the coming time period and make a decision. Hopefully, it will be timely. In doing that, I will consult directly with the Department of Health and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, to see if we can find a solution.

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