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

Again, I thank Deputy Burke for raising this issue. We keep this under review. The changes were put in place last November in our Department and then the Departments of Health and Justice followed suit. The three Departments are working quite closely to try to prioritise this area.

When it comes to judgments on the permits, we have made a lot of changes in our own Department to streamline that overall process and to be responsive. The time for most permit applications is down to a couple of weeks now. We have for a long number of years prioritised all cases related to health.

The system is probably correct now. It allows us to compete for talent, certainly when it comes to medical doctors, all over the world. I think we compare quite favourably with any other jurisdiction. We keep this under review and engage with the Departments of Health and Justice quite regularly on it. As late as yesterday, the Tánaiste, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and I and our officials all met again to review the system in general in order to see how we can align our services to make them as fast and efficient as possible. When it comes to critical skills, we want to be able to react quickly. I believe we can do so, but we will keep this under review. If Deputy Burke has any issues he wants to raise directly, that is no problem at all. I am happy to meet him.

See this speech in context