Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We review that list every six months, so it is probably up for review about now. It is handled by the Minister of State, Deputy English, as Deputy Ó Cathasaigh mentioned. Generally, we are guided by what we hear from employers as to which skills and posts they cannot fill. Two have crossed our desks a lot recently. One is bus drivers, which the Deputy mentioned. There are well-qualified bus drivers from outside the EU who could come here and help solve some of our problems. The other relates to care. There is a very significant shortage of home carers in the country, as the Deputy will be aware. The qualifications in that sector are more complicated but those are the two areas we are looking at, with a view to expanding the permits within the next couple of weeks.

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