David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for selecting this issue and the Minister for being here to respond. I have been raising this issue for quite some time in committee, in the Chamber and with colleagues. It has to do with Irish companies and foreign direct investment, FDI, companies located here that require staff to come from abroad to work here for a limited period. They bring leadership and expertise and so on that is not available here. However, quite often, staff have a partner or spouse who can actually accompany that person while working here, for that period. The challenge is that a partner or spouse has no automatic right to work here. They can apply for a work permit but that can be challenging. It has been brought to my attention by some companies that in some instances people have refused to come here or have cut short the time spent here. That is a loss to us as a nation.

We are also an outlier. Most of our competitor countries allow the spouses or partners of intracompany transfer permit holders to work as an automatic right. They have to apply for jobs when they get here, similar to anyone else, and compete and so on but it makes it easier. However, for the critical skills list, when somebody comes here, the spouse or partner can automatically work. I am asking is for a change to be made so that when we have an intracompany transfer permit granted to a person of high skill or high leadership ability who comes here for a short period and his or her spouse or partner comes as well, that the spouse or partner can work as an automatic right, in the same way as the partners of critical skills workers can work.

There is an organisation called Permits Foundation with which I have been working. It has written to the Departments of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Justice on this issue. It maintains that, where a host country allows partners to work, 91% of employers said that their organisation’s ability to attract people with the desired qualifications and skills increased. The organisation also maintains that 80% of employers reported a rise in the host country's reputation as a fair, equal opportunity society and that the country's reputation for doing business also went up. Some 94% of global mobility professionals said that family members should be authorised to work in the host country directly on recognition of their dependant status. For most, the definition of family members should be broad, covering married and non-married partners and, for half the respondents, working-age children. That is another issue. Partners of international employees are themselves highly educated. Some 88% held a bachelor’s degree or higher, 53% of partners were not in employment in the host country and 84% of those unemployed wanted to be employed.

This has generated some international attention since I have raised it here. Yesterday I received an email from a person who said:

I am the head of recruitment of a leading --- business and wanted to reach out on the spousal right to work on inter company transfers. I noted that you have raised this in the Oireachtas in the past. A number of our senior leaders have spouses --- who cannot work here. These are highly educated, experienced professionals, many of whom had great careers across different companies and countries before coming to Ireland. Here they cannot work freely.

This person was wondering whether there was any progress in this issue and went on to say:

I met a partner of a senior leader today and felt very sorry for them. This person wants to work as a freelancer and is unable, even though he is here a few years already. It really spoils the experience for the families.

The last time I raised this during oral questions to the Minister, she said she would have a look at it and she indicated that she herself was positively disposed to this and would do some work on it. I am really forward to her response this morning. I hope she will have a positive response and that changes will be made at Government policy level to enable this to happen quickly.

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