Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The skills shortage across many sectors has been exacerbated by the pandemic. While many businesses thankfully survived that terrible vista, in no small way due to the financial supports from the Government, such as the wage subsidy schemes, the CRSS, waiving of rates, warehousing of tax returns etc., the re-opening presents its own challenges. Not least of these is the impact of energy and fuel costs, but there is a further and serious issue of skills shortage and unavailability of work, both at home and, it would appear, in Europe.

This is a growing phenomenon, which has been exacerbated by delays in the processing, adjudicating and awarding of permits for workers, especially of those who are from outside Europe. This is a case that is manifesting itself throughout the country and in my own constituency and many others in recent weeks. It is against that backdrop that I wanted to read into the record two such representations. The first is from an engineering company which is based in Tullamore. It states:

We currently have over €15 million worth of work ahead of us at present, all for export to the UK. We are in serious need of fitter fabricators, turners and mechanical design engineers. We have explored every avenue possible regarding advertising and recruitment agencies and cannot get the staff we require. As you are aware, Barry, last year we had to recruit from outside the EU, which is a massive task and expense, but we had no option. Going to all that effort and expense is one thing, but the extremely slow process of work permits and visas, even though we have a trusted partner status, is crazy. The timeframe between work permit application and approval and then visa application is 20 to 22 weeks. That is with all going according to plan. We used a company last year to recruit eight men from Vietnam. We paid €8,000 to apply for eight work permits. After nearly five months of waiting they were approved, but these men fell through, due to long wait for the permit. We lost our €8,000. At this point, our situation is critical. We have now employed the services of another recruitment company. They have an expert in the field of recruitment from the Philippines. We are currently going to try and take on ten fitter fabricators, at a cost of €6,000 per person to recruit. However, again, the issue with the processing of work permits is going to delay us hugely. We need these workers urgently, Barry, and we cannot afford to be let down again.

A haulage company contacted me. It stated:

Like every transport and logistics company in Ireland, we have been operating during Covid-19 to keep open the supply chain links that are vitally necessary of course for the economic and social wellbeing of this country. As you are aware, there is a crisis in our industry regarding the recruitment and retention of heavy goods vehicle drivers. You have seen what happened in the UK, with shops shelves empty and panic buying at the forecourts. We as an island nation that is predominantly rural are totally dependent and road haulage, because the only viable means of transport of waterways and rail are not viable or realistic options. In this regard, we are at the coalface, collecting milk off-farm in the midlands and delivering animal feedstuff and fertilisers to farms, also in the midlands. Without this service, the agricultural sector would grind to a halt. Already, there is a real risk of milk not being collected off farms in 2022. This, of course, would have a catastrophic impact on both farm and agri-processing industry. To address this dilemma, this haulage company has commenced the recruitment process of South African drivers. However, the process of obtaining work permits has dramatically slowed. It is in this regard, Barry, that we need your assistance urgently. We need these workers immediately, as we are now commencing a substantial 2022 milk collection season with Glanbia.

That is a just a flavour of what I am sure is also being relayed to the Minister of State by many other Deputies throughout the country. I felt it necessary to read them into the record, in order to show it from the perspective of my own constituency. While it is predominately rural, it is also dependent on acquiring a workforce from beyond Europe. While the free movement of work and services within Europe was a welcome delivery from the EU over many years as a placement for a workforce, it has now dried up. It is essential that we enter into agreements with other third countries that are outside Europe, some of which I have mentioned and many others of which I am sure the Minister of State is aware. The Minister of State might update us on the efforts that his Department is making to address this issue so that we can confidently express our commitment to our constituents and to those companies that they may have an option in the near future.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Cowen for raising this issue, as well as for putting forward those two cases, which are familiar stories about the system, on the floor of the House. I am happy to take him through what we are doing to address this, as well as to give him some context on it.

At the start, however, I want to say that I totally agree with the Deputy that this is not an acceptable timeframe. I will not stand over it, our Department is not happy with it, and neither is the Tánaiste. The Taoiseach has addressed it here as well. We have plans in place to address this, and we have a target to bring these timelines right back down. However, they are a victim of Covid-19. They are also a victim of the recovery phase that we are in as we come out of Covid-19, as well as of the demand for these permits. While we are not happy with the timelines, I will explain to the Deputy what is behind them, and what we are doing to correct them.

We hope to very soon, in the weeks ahead, be able to bring the timelines back down. A plan of action is in place to keep them down, when we get to that stage. The Deputy addressed the overall issue, apart from the permits, of a skills shortage, and he is right. Thanks to all of the supports, which the Deputy referenced, from the Government over the last two years, we are in a position to have a jobs-led recovery. However, that brings pressure on the system and a demand for skills and labour, which seems to be unable to be met from traditional sources within Ireland and across Europe for many sectors. We have to respond to that in a combination of ways which include the permit scheme, but also through upskilling, education systems, further education and training, and engaging with the Department of Social Protection's Pathways to Work document, which is to assist employers and employees.

I would ask that all of those sectors would engage with my Department and me, as well as with the Department of Education and with the Department of Social Protection, as we work together to resolve these issues into the long term. This is because while permits can be seen as the solution in the short term, they should not be seen as the long-term fix. I am happy to engage with Deputy Cowen and his colleagues on this issue.

To set the context, my Department and the employment permit system did continue to operate from the onset of the pandemic. My Department implemented a Covid-19 contingency plan in March 2020, moving the employment permit operations seamlessly to a totally remote working environment and to accept all documents from applicants electronically. The Department moved quite fast to do that. Ireland was one of the few countries that has managed to keep its employment permit system fully operational throughout the crisis. My Department made an agreement with immigration service delivery in the Department of Justice as a temporary measure, to take soft-copy arrangements for issuing employment permits.

From the outset of the crisis, in order to assist the HSE and all other medical providers in the State to respond to and to assist with the public health response to the threat of Covid-19, all doctors’ and nurses’ employment permit applications were expedited. This is still ongoing and over 4,000 of those permits were issued in 2021, which put an additional pressure on the system. The Department has seen unprecedented increases in the volume of applications for employment permits over the course of 2021. In total last year, some 27,666 applications were received, representing a 69% increase over the same period in 2020 and a 47% increase based on 2019 figures. This was an 11-year high in applications. Even before Covid-19, therefore, this issue was growing, but Covid-19 has exacerbated it.

My Department issued more than 16,000 employment permits in 2021, and processed approximately 18,000 applications.

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In addition, the extension of categories of employment permits following the latest review of the occupational lists has increased the availability of employment permits for these roles. We made changes in many areas in the autumn, as the Deputy referenced, including the construction sector, horticulture, meat processing and haulage. We have allowed for additional permits to be granted in those areas and that has resulted in about 3,000 more applications being made.

Processing times were also impacted by the HSE cyberattack last year. We are still suffering from that backlog. However, we have dealt with that and we have made changes to the system. Due to the significant additional administrative burden in dealing with these applications and the cyberattack, we put in place extra staff who were temporarily reassigned to assist in the process. That had a direct impact on the processing times. I and officials in my Department, along with the Tánaiste, recognise the impact delays on the processing times for employment permits has on businesses and their workers. A plan of action has been developed to meet the challenges and to bring down the backlog that has built up over recent months. The plan includes both additional staffing and systemic changes. The staffing actions being taken include recruitment of additional permanent and temporary staff, with an increase of 69% on our permanent capacity and 125% when temporary staff are included. On 2 February, additional approval was granted to increase our staffing levels again. Permanent capacity will increase by 125% and overall capacity, which includes permanent and temporary staff, will increase by 225%.

We are now in a position to deal with this backlog quite quickly over the next couple of months and will retain those extra staff in the months ahead to deal with the ongoing demand for permits. We are happy to work with individual sectors, like the haulage sector, on this issue. Last year we proactively removed the limit on the number of people who could come into the country and we worked with the Department of Transport and the Road Safety Authority to get agreement with other countries on the recognition of driving skills. That should assist in sourcing drivers.

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for his detailed response. I appreciate much of what has been said, including his honest appraisal and acknowledgement of the problem. I acknowledge the commitments that have been made and that are ongoing to address this issue, with the provision of new permanent staff and the allocation of temporary staff from other Departments to help. I agree that there is potential for this country to respond in a way that can benefit us all, notwithstanding the difficulties associated with the inflationary measures that have been here longer than one would have expected and which may well be here longer than we would like as well. It is imperative that we have a jobs-led recovery and that they are quality jobs and quality contracts with quality delivery. We should maintain the standards that we have grown accustomed to in many specialist areas such as those I have mentioned.

I appreciate the Government's progress in the provision of apprenticeship courses within the CAO system and the increase in the number of places. I also acknowledge the work that has been done in targeting certain areas. In my constituency, the Construction Industry Federation and Offaly ETB targeted and recognised the potential of the retrofitting programme. I hope to visit there again tomorrow to see for myself the efforts being made to provide the sort of capacity that is needed in that sector to meet the demands of the system. Provisions were announced this week that will be especially relevant for those incremental benefits that can accrue in my region because of people's dependence on solid fuel and oil and so forth. They are in far greater need of action than many others who will be well-placed to take advantage of the €25,000, and more luck to them if they can.

I ask that the Government maintain the effort that is being made to address this issue. There is recognition within the Department of the need to address this speedily and to do so in a way that ensures that companies that have built up a reputation can maintain it and that the quality of our workforce, its products and the expertise associated with it can be maintained and improved into the future. Then that jobs-led recovery can play its part in ensuring that it responds positively, in addition to the Government intervention for the inflationary pressure on our economy.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I assure Deputy Cowen that every effort will be made by our Department to put enough staff in place and to change the system to make sure we can process these permits. As I have outlined, there has been an increase in staff on these teams. There are more than 50 additional people in the system and many of the existing staff are working overtime and every night they are allowed to work in order to deal with the backlog. With the plan we have put in place, we will get through this backlog in the next few months and get back on track to normal processing times. We are committed to monitoring the level of applications because I expect this demand to continue for a period. We will monitor that and keep staffing at the level required to deal with that and keep on track. We pride ourselves on having a very strong permit regime, which has worked quite well up until now and responds generally to the needs of the various sectors. Processing times of 18 to 20 weeks are not acceptable and we will not continue with that. I guarantee that there is a plan in place and that those the numbers will come back down.

I echo the Deputy's comments. The Government, including the Ministers for Social Protection, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, and Education, and I are happy to work with any sector with identifiable needs. We do a lot of analysis in our Department on the future needs analysis of the various sectors and we have put many reforms in place in the educational system to respond to that. The Deputy touched on the importance of the apprenticeship schemes and the further education and training sector. Our ETBs are ready and able to respond and work locally and nationally with various sectors to turn out the skills they need. There are still quite a number of people on jobseekers' payments or the PUP and we ask that they avail of the various supports to get back into work, retrain or take the subsidies for employees and employers in these sectors. I am conscious that even with that, certain sectors will need skills from abroad. We will work with them to make this an option but in the long term we would like to see those jobs filled from within the country, or certainly from within Europe, if at all possible. We are happy to work with Deputy Cowen or any of the industries he has mentioned on that.