Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The purpose of this Bill is to consolidate and update the legislative provisions that regulate the employment permit system, namely, the Employment Permits Acts of 2003 and 2006. The conclusions of the Review of Economic Migration Policy of 2018 endorsed the robust fundamental structures of the existing system to increase its responsiveness, modernise it and ensure that it is capable of adapting to the changing needs the labour market of the future. The review obviously then recommended that new legislation be initiated.

Coming from County Kerry and dealing with an awful lot of employers, whether they are involved in the hotel and hospitality, construction or haulage sectors, fishing, farming, forestry, horticulture, spas, or whether they are agricultural contractors, hairdressers, barbers and beauticians, one thing that comes up on a continuous basis is the awkwardness and contrariness of the procedures involved in trying to get work permits for wonderful people who want to come here to work and earn their living. They want to make this their home and get on with their lives and they have chosen Ireland to do that.

Now, more than ever, with our increasing population and the way Ireland is evolving, please God and fingers crossed we can keep things going from an employment point of view and keep jobs in this country. When people want to come here, I always say we have to try to make it as easy and streamlined as possible for them to do so. However, the big thing is not just to come here but to work here. What comes up repeatedly is that people always say the Irish were welcomed when we went to England, America and Australia. Of course we were welcomed; we worked. Our brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, parents and grandparents went and worked. They did not go and get anything for nothing. They built London and New York. They went down to Sydney and all over the world and everywhere they went, they left the mark of their hand. They left the sweat from their brow and broke their backs working, in many cases. However, they were very glad of that opportunity. I want to see us give other people that same opportunity.

We are not a State with endless money. We are not digging gold, oil or anything out of the ground. We do not have endless resources. Therefore, the only hope we have to survive in Ireland is work. An awful lot of people in this Dáil seem to have very little regard for work. I hear people in here talking on a continuous basis about the four-day week. The only reason they want a four-day week is because they could not clean their own heads, never mind anything else. It is because they do not want to work themselves. The example they want to set in the Dáil is the sooner we have a four-day week, that is better for Ireland. It is not. We all want work. We want as much work as possible. Work in itself creates more work. We have people involved in all those industries I highlighted to the Minister of State and they want workers to come here. When I say to the Minister of State that we are fortunate enough that people in other countries want to come here, I look on that as us being fortunate that they chose Ireland. They will come here and raise their families, work, earn money, pay tax and help our economy to grow. We must do an awful lot of things to allow all that to happen, however. The changes proposed in the Bill will give effect to those recommendations while retaining the key policy focus of supporting the economy and labour market through evidence-based decision-making.

Again I would ask the Minister of State to make it easier to get these work permits.

The number of applications for employment permits for workers outside the European Economic Area has increased in 2022 and it has reached a record high in the past 13 years. Data published by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment showed that from the beginning of January to the end of August 2022 a total of 27,653 permits have been issued to foreign workers, while another 2,210 have been refused and 1,466 have been rejected. However, this year's figures show a staggering almost 250% jump in the number of permits awarded in the same periods in 2020 and 2019. I mention the eligibility criteria to get these permits. There are something like seven or eight criteria one has to fill and the general employment permits must have a minimum salary of €30,000, based on a 39-hour week. This can be difficult for employers to attain and we have to look again at the common-sense point of this. If the people issuing the permits know that if these people come here there is a reliable and respectable employer willing to vouch for them and that he or she will have work for them, is that not all we want?

That brings me to the fact that the vastly increasing numbers of people coming here to live will need to find places to stay. The increase in people coming to Ireland on work permits alone will outstrip the number of projected new builds. Similar demands will be placed on all other sectors, from transport to education and health. Where will the 40,000 people who will obtain a work permit in Ireland in 2022 live? That is a very important question. Clearly they will drive up the demand for housing and the cost of renting and buying. Are these factors being considered by Government? To add to this, we also have the separate issue of the Ukrainian refugees, who are most welcome, coming here at the same time and we are struggling to house them.

We heard about the situation in Killarney in recent days and I was glad to play my part in ensuring they got alternative accommodation. These people had made a happy home away from home because they did not want to be here but now that they are here they settled extremely well. Their children are going to school, they are learning the language, many of them have secured part-time work and they are involved in the services that were available in the Killarney area. The principals, teachers and all the different professional people who were dealing with them were most upset when these families were told they would have to leave and go to County Mayo. I have nothing against Mayo but if you have settled and made your home in Killarney - many of them have been there since last March - surely it was wrong and a bad decision to move them. I am grateful to the people in the Department who secured other accommodation for them in Killarney and that they will not have to leave. That was common sense and the system working as it should, for the betterment of people, and most particularly for the betterment of innocent children who are here, not because they want to be, but because they have to be.

The highest number of employment permits, a total of 7,608, were issued for information and communication activities, followed by a total of 6,609 permits issued to workers in health and social work activities. On the nationality of employment permit holders, a large share, 10,171, were Indian nationals. These were followed by: 3,322 Brazilians; 1,387 Filipinos; and 1,277 Pakistanis. We have to look at the sectors that are still crying out for more workers. We have to ask ourselves what we can do in this legislation to make it easier for employers who are suffering because of another issue that is happening.

I do not know if people in the Government realise this, but in the past two weeks the mass exodus from Ireland to Australia and New Zealand was pointed out to me. It is predominantly young boys and girls between the ages of 19 and 25. The number leaving is staggering. We have to encourage young people like that. If they want to go, it is a free world and we wish them nothing but health, happiness and good luck in their journeys. I know many of them personally and there were a couple of parties for them in recent weeks. I am genuinely sorry to see them go, but I remind them that the planes go both ways and that we want them to come back again. However, there is a difference between wanting to go and having to go.

It does not make sense to lose nurses because they feel the careers that are available to them here are not as good as what they could achieve abroad from a monetary and work satisfaction point of view. We all know the basket case the HSE is, to be blunt about it. If 1 million people are waiting for procedures to be carried out in a country with our population that does not look good for the health service. That is not a reflection on the people working in it but it is a reflection on the management of it. I am just picking on that sector and if we lose a young nurse and he or she goes away to the other end of the world or somewhere like that, perhaps we are losing that next generation, including their children and grandchildren and they are gone from us, perhaps forever. We should think of the parents and grandparents at home who would dearly love to see those people stay. I want those work opportunities to be here for those people and I want the recompense they would get to be of the same benefit to them as they will get abroad. We cannot do much about things like the weather but by God we can make working conditions for these people attractive to make them stay.

A lot of those working in construction, agriculture, plant hire and so on are leaving. Why is that?. Whether we are in the Government or in the Opposition we all have a responsibility to take care of those people. We cannot stop people going abroad to work if they want to go, but I do not want them to have to go. For example, in the 1950s many of my aunts and uncles left because they simply had to go. There was not £1 to be made here and there was nothing here at the time. When they went abroad they just worked and worked and that is how they got on. That was a case of having to go but we want to try to make it attractive for the people who are here now. I ask the Minister of State, the Minister for Health, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and all the different Ministers to wake up to the fact that we are losing thousands of people every week from this country. This has been happening more in the past six months than was the case in the past six years and I would like the Minister of State to address that when he speaks later. Does the Government realise that is happening?

I would welcome anything that can be done in this legislation that would make it attractive for these people to come here, through all the different sectors I have outlined, and to make it as cost effective, streamlined and as attractive as possible for people to be welcomed into this country to work. I would remind some Deputies, who seem to have a hang-up about work, that there is nothing wrong with wanting, looking for, needing, encouraging and creating work and employment.

To be honest, what we are lacking at the moment is people to do some of those things. We need to show a bit of leadership in this House. I would love to put a ban on any Deputy standing up and talking rubbish about a four-day working week and how the sooner we get to it the better for everybody. I do not use bad language but if I were anywhere else than here, the word I would use would be something along the lines of "balderdash".

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