James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. My Department and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment work closely together to ensure the arrangements in place to facilitate legal migration to Ireland for employment purposes are efficient, fair and responsive to the needs of our economy and society.

The atypical working scheme is one element of these arrangements and was developed by agreement between the two Departments. It facilitates specialised, highly-skilled employment of a short-term nature which is not supported by the main employment permit process, which requires longer employment undertakings. Generally, the contract periods which come within the scheme are for less than 90 days and include short-term contracts in the technology and financial sectors, for example, as well as in the entertainment and creative industries.

Following consultations undertaken with other Departments and Government agencies, certain other employment situations are also supported by the atypical working scheme.

These include locum medical professionals and nurses seeking to have their qualifications recognised here. The wider terms of the scheme are kept under ongoing review in consultation with relevant Departments and I am informed the maximum processing time for in-order applications is currently 20 working days. Unfortunately, statistics are not retained county by county. I will, however, forward to the Deputy a table of the overall number of applications dealt with and their outcomes for the period back to 2018. For illustrative purposes, a total of 6,438 applications were dealt with under this scheme in 2022, of which 85% were approved. Where an application is refused, it is open to the applicant to engage with the unit and submit a new application for consideration.

It remains open to any individual intending to work in this State to secure a longer term permission via the employment permit system managed by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

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