Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the expansion of the employment permits system to allow for a growing workforce to be made readily available here in Ireland. I constantly speak to business owners, machinery operators and farmers. The message I have been getting for a long time now is that there is a major shortage of workers for key parts of the economy. I am consistently contacted by employers, particularly in the services and hospitality industry and in agrifood production, who are looking for people to start work. It is a very positive place to be in the sense that we are seeing record levels of employment but many businesses are coming under increased pressure to continue operating with skeleton staffs. A hotel owner I know fairly well has stopped answering the phone at times during the week because the hotel cannot take any more requests for rooms or for tables in the restaurant at night due to the chronic shortage of staff. The teenagers and young adults going back to college really exacerbated the situation and has put pressure on staff numbers in an awful lot of industries.

I want to talk about the red tape and the bureaucracy involved in getting work permits through the system. The bureaucracy involved in the entire employment permits system needs to be removed or drastically reduced. We need to cut away the red tape and the unnecessary delays in getting badly needed workers here. I have been working on employment permit applications with a constituent for a long number of months. Between all of the bureaucracy and the issue being passed from one place to another, we have had to work with four separate Departments to try to get an outcome. While it is one thing to get permits for workers to come to Ireland to work, getting visas approved is another obstacle. All of these processes take time. They are slowing the flow of workers into the country when they are badly needed. All of these processes are frustrating businesses to such an extent that some are now telling me that, if the issues are not resolved in the coming months, they will simply have to cease operations.

I am dealing with a mushroom producer. This industry is facing one issue after another, from the lack of availability of peat to the substantial increases in the cost of energy. The lack of availability of labour is now putting businesses in jeopardy. Some horticultural producers, especially in the mushroom industry, are leaving some of their tunnels idle because of the lack of a workforce. The frustration among business owners is clear as they try to work their way through these processes. There are workers who are ready and willing to come here to start employment and they cannot source employees here. They are not operating at capacity and it is taking months upon months to get the workers here to resolve the issues. For these permits to have the greatest impact, the entire process needs to be streamlined, the bureaucracy removed and faster processing of businesses' applications guaranteed. If this is not achieved, the numbers being approved are just numbers while businesses struggle to operate at a much reduced capacity. It is time for strict timelines to be put in place so that prospective employers applying for a work permit will know they will get an answer within ten, 14 or 21 days or whatever the time limit is. The same should be done for visa applications. There should be strict timelines in place for employers who locate workers and organises the paperwork to get them here to work.

They should know within 21 days or 28 days that these workers will be available to come here to work, whether that is in the hospitality sector, horticulture or wherever. The process needs to be streamlined. It is the same with the dairy industry. There is a severe shortage of labour there as well and there are huge opportunities. I urge the Minister of State to streamline the process.

This Bill is most welcome, but unless we reduce the red tape, employers will just say they cannot put up with the hassle. The delays are completely unacceptable.

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