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

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. He has been raising it for some time, for all the reasons that he outlined and the particular cases he just mentioned in respect of people working in the State already whose spouses or partners who want to work unfortunately cannot. Some spouses and partners want to be here and some of them are not with them here because they cannot work. As the Deputy said, I gave a commitment to respond and to engage with him because I believe we need to change this.

I am pleased to report to him and the House that following Cabinet approval yesterday, spouses and partners of general employment and intracorporate transfer permit holders will now be able to engage in employment. As the Deputy will be aware, previously, spouses or partners who were granted immigration permission as dependants of these employment permit holders, could only work if they acquired a separate work permit. Many of them left jobs and roles to join their families here and of course many wanted to continue their careers here in Ireland

Today, approximately 20% of our workforce was not born in Ireland. They play an absolutely vital role in our economy, businesses, healthcare sector and society. Last year alone, the State issued almost 13,000 general employment permits and almost 2,000 intracorporate transfer permits. It is estimated that approximately 54% of these permit holders bring a spouse or partner to Ireland, meaning that there may be several thousand spouses or partners of these permit holders in the State who are unable to legally contribute to their household income or directly to the economy. There are potentially people who wanted to come here to work, as I said, but have not come here because of the impact on their spouse or partner.

Fundamentally, I saw this, as did the Deputy, as a missed opportunity for Ireland. It risked making Ireland less attractive for workers and also limiting a person’s ability to contribute to the economy and provide for their family.

I am happy to inform him that the requirement to obtain a separate employment permit has been lifted from today and the website has been updated as of this morning. This means that spouses and partners of these work permit holders who are currently residing in the State on a stamp 3 immigration permission will be able to work immediately. Additionally, they will not be required to attend an immigration office to change their permission. Detailed information regarding these arrangements is available on my Department's website, which, as I said, was updated just this morning and sets out these changes for individuals and prospective employers. I hope that the people mentioned in the email that came to the Deputy will be able to know from today that they can themselves start to work if that is what they wish to do. Going forward, spouses and partners who are granted permission to join their family members in the State will be granted a stamp 1G immigration permission.

My Department has worked closely with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to effect this change. It is a good example of proactive and positive engagement between two Departments. Both Departments are absolutely committed to ensuring that our economic migration arrangements are fair, efficient and responsive to the needs of society, the economy and businesses, whether they are Irish or those from abroad that have set up here.

In addition to the changes agreed for spouses and partners of employment permit holders, the Government also agreed to create a single permit to both work and live in Ireland. To the Deputy's point, we are currently competing with the likes of the UK, EU member states, the US, Canada and further abroad, where people can apply and get a single permit to work or live, whereas for here they have to come, go to the Department of enterprise, get their work permit and then come to the Department of Justice. We need to make it more streamlined because we are not as attractive as other countries for those who are seeking work.

I believe both of these measures will significantly enhance Ireland's ability to compete internationally to attract talent, address skills shortages in our economy and promote economic growth. It will also help in the most important way, which is to bring families together.

See this speech in context