Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that work is being done and that the Minister of State is saying the consultation is complete and that progress will be made in due course. We have to recognise that for many people who are waiting to get a bus which does not come because it cannot be serviced, waiting on a report or for something to happen in the future is not any good to them. We need action on this sort of thing immediately. One of the frustrations many experience in both the private and indeed the public sector is that, when they get into this process of seeking employees from outside the European Union and getting work permits for them, it can be a slow and arduous process. They have to advertise in the European Union, prove there is nobody looking for the work and all of this, yet across the European Union and in Ireland, we have many reports from various agencies stating there is a huge shortage of many of these skills and we need to bring them in from outside the jurisdiction. There needs to be haste in providing these permits to get these workers here to make sure we can keep our public services running efficiently.

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