David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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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.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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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.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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For once, I am at a loss for words. I am absolutely thrilled with this news. I thank and congratulate the Minister for listening to what I had to say, taking on board what I said and actually making the change happen. It is an example that shows that this House actually works. If Ministers like her listen to colleagues across the House with regard to suggestions such as this and then actually take action, we can make much more progress in many areas. This will make a huge difference to a small number of people.

A number of years ago what prompted me was a call I got from a lady who had been here with her husband. She was highly qualified but unable to work. He was an intracompany transfer. We tried at the time to make changes but it was not possible. I am delighted now to hear this news.

It will also have a positive impact on our global competitiveness. We will be able to compete equally with our competitor colleague countries, of which there are more than 30 that allow spouses and partners to work automatically when they arrive. To clarify, they are allowed to apply for work; they may not get a job. That will make it more attractive. It will also benefit people who come here who want to set up businesses from foreign direct investment and send a team here and bring their partner or spouse with them. It will make it more attractive for those highly-skilled, highly-qualified people to come here for the short period that the intracompany transfer permit allows in order to set up companies and businesses.

This is a positive and important move. The implications will be not only local and national but international. It will also make a difference on a personal level to the people who come here. If somebody comes here and both partners can work, their family income goes up, which makes it more attractive as well. It is a win-win-win for everybody.

I congratulate the Minister, her officials and the Ministers and officials in the Department of enterprise. When the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, was previously in the Department of enterprise, he was strong on this and very supportive. I am not sure whether there will be any notice in media and so on because it is a good news story and an important one.

I say, “Well done, thank you and congratulations” to the Minister.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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That was a very good recovery from the Deputy's loss of words.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Thank you. I am from Cork.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I again thank the Deputy for raising this. The most important thing here is that it makes sense. Sometimes we just have to apply common sense to a situation that clearly does not work. It might be a small number but there are thousands of people living here who want to work but cannot and there are people here whose spouses or partners have not come with them because of the fact they cannot work or cannot work easily. There are also people who will not come here because of this very situation. Therefore, changing this is not just positive for those families but it is positive for our economy as well.

When I was in New York for St. Patrick’s Day this year, I had a lot of different engagements but one thing that stood out when people talk about Ireland and what attracts them to Ireland is our wonderful workforce. What is really positive about our workforce is that 20% of people in our workforce were not born here. We have a multilingual, multiskilled and multitalented workforce. It is a benefit to our country and it is something that people from the outside looking in see as a benefit. To be able to make it easier for people who want to come here, bring their skills, bring their knowledge, but also bring their partners who also have that strong ability is an important change. It is an important signal to send. In addition, the changes we will make to bring forward a single permit to allow people to come and work here will make us a much more attractive destination.

I thank the Deputy for raising this. I look forward to seeing the benefit of it and those applying for jobs hopefully from today onwards.