Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 11 and 26 together.

I am sure we all agree that migration plays an essential and very positive role in our society and economy. It is vital to addressing labour shortages at all skill levels across the economy and has been a key driver of growth in this country. As the Deputy will be aware, and as he just mentioned, issuing visas and residence permits is the responsibility of my Department while the criteria and conditions for obtaining employment permits are set by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The Departments work closely together to ensure that our labour market migration arrangements are fair, efficient and responsive to the needs of Irish society and the economy generally.

We agreed in principle in late 2022 that a single application procedure for employment permits and immigration permissions should be developed and to establish an inter-departmental working group to develop an implementation plan for consideration by the Government. I can advise the Deputy that work has been under way over the last year to examine and reform the current system whereby separate applications have to be made for employment permits and immigration permissions. This reform is with a view to improving the user experience, in particular reducing the length of time involved due to the requirement for two separate processes, enhancing our competitiveness in attracting skilled migrant workers and aligning with EU standards. We are working to design solutions that better integrate the employment permits and immigration permissions processes. A number of process and IT improvements are in progress, which will result in enhanced data collection and quality as well as dual employer-employee access and alignment between the information made available online to applicants from both Departments.

In the short term, we are looking at a range of operational improvements to assist applicants.

These will be introduced over the next 18 months while the wider system is being developed. It will include streamlining fees, removing the duplication of certain checks carried out by both my Department and the Department of enterprise, and reducing the number of documents required at immigration registration by pre-validating certain key documents. Over the medium term, these steps will be built on to develop a fully integrated single application process.

Ultimately, these improvements will mean that a nurse from India, for example, moving to Ireland will have to go through only one application process and pay one fee to complete the requirements to work and live in Ireland. There is the medium-term aspect, therefore, which will take about 18 months, and while I do not have an exact timeframe for the longer one, the work done in the 18 months will speed up the longer term process.

See this speech in context