Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The intra-company transfer permit system is designed to facilitate the transfer of senior management, key personnel or trainees of a foreign employer to its Irish branch. At present, spouses of intra-company transfer employment permit holders can move to Ireland immediately with the permit holder, however they are not entitled to access the labour market automatically. Instead, they too must apply for a separate employment permit if offered a job that is eligible for a work permit. I am aware that there have been calls from stakeholders and from Members of the Oireachtas to make changes to these rules and I have engaged with many of my colleagues on this issue over recent weeks.

The issue of the labour market access of spouses of employment permit holders is receiving consideration and the impact of any changes is being researched at present. Officials in my Department have been in close engagement with officials in the Department of Justice on this issue as part of wider collaboration on economic migration and talent attraction.

I am aware that this is something that the Deputy himself has been very outspoken on and I always welcome his contributions in this regard. I encourage any others who have case examples where this is perhaps impeding employment in their own constituencies to come forward to the Department and submit those to either myself or to any of the other Ministers. Looking at barriers is key at a time of a tightened labour force where we are trying to attract the best talent to this country. The barriers are not always pay or conditions but it can be the ability to bring one's spouse or family to the country and ensure that they can have the full opportunity and that is something that needs to be looked at. To the crux of the Deputy's question, there were 6,449 intra company transfers issued 2018 and June 2023.

The Deputy requested the details in tabular form. They will be provided in a written response, but I will give a flavour. In 2018, 918 intra-company transfer employment permits were issued, only 41 were refused and 25 applications were withdrawn. In addition, 19 intra-company transfer employment permits for trainees were issued, one was refused and two applications were withdrawn. Those kinds of numbers are consistent over the years. They go up and down, which they did during the Covid-19 pandemic, for example. Bearing in mind that it is not yet July, so far this year 873 intra-company transfer employment permits have been issued, only five have been refused and ten applications have been withdrawn and 13 intra-company transfer employment permits for training have been issued, none was refused or no applications were withdrawn. In the last full year for which we have figures, 2022, 1,876 intra-company transfer employment permits were issued, only nine were refused and 36 applications were withdrawn. Last year, the year with the highest number on record, 74 intra-company transfer employment permits for trainees were issued, none was refused and no applications were withdrawn.

I will give the Deputy the full details from 2018 to 2023 for both full permits and training permits in writing.

See this speech in context