Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The employment permit system is demand-led and designed to respond to the real labour market needs. The occupations list is reviewed periodically. The next formal review is scheduled for the summer. It will be open to all sectors. We invite many representative bodies, Departments and NGOs to make submissions. It is evidence-based. It is reviewed and overseen by an interdepartmental group on economic migration, the skills and labour market research unit and Department of Social Protection. We recently made 43 changes to the occupations list. That reflects the new critical skills required. We are making changes including key sectors such as science, engineering and health. I will come back to the Deputy about his question on the ongoing performance of the current system which was implemented as part of an action plan. It has been working well in recent months.

See this speech in context