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

The Deputy raised two important issues. The first is the reform of the overall system. In recent years, especially in working closely with the Tánaiste and the Department over the past year, we put extra resources and staffing into that area. The number of staff available to work through the backlog in permits has nearly trebled. Thankfully, the processing time has been reduced. We had been seeing timelines of nearly 20 weeks, and more in some cases. In most cases now, though, the waiting time is back down to four or five weeks, which is correct. We will continue to drive on with this work with more forms and more changes, including using IT and more skilled staff to enhance this process and to reduce the waiting time even more.

Legislation will also be coming through the Houses this autumn, which will again help to streamline the process. Therefore, the process itself is being addressed. The Deputy, however, also raised two other issues. One was our engagement and work with the Department of Justice on this issue, because it can be complicated for certain sectors and for people from certain countries coming in as well. Therefore, we have regular engagement with the Department of Justice. We have made changes that have worked quite well in the medical profession in general, and we will home in on other areas that have been identified in this regard as well. The Tánaiste, the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, and I will be meeting in the next week or two to focus on some of the changes also coming through at EU level which might help us to align our two systems. We do, however, try to respond.

A working group specific to this sector, involving representatives from all the relevant Departments, has been established to focus on this issue. This has been done because this is not just about finding an answer to this problem involving work permits; other issues are involved. We must put in place permanent solutions, and I will be very happy to work with Deputy Carey to make this happen very quickly.

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