Mary White (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Fianna Fáil broadly supports the provisions of the Employment Permits (Amendment) Bill 2014. The purpose of the Bill is to amend and extend the Employment Permits Acts 2003 and 2006 to provide greater flexibility to deal with the ever-changing skills needs of businesses and the overall economic development needs of the Irish economy, which often require a rapid response. The Bill also provides for an improved employment permits regime with greater clarity, and updates provisions for the employment permits schemes in line policy and economic developments since 2007. In 2012 Senator Quinn put forward a Private Member's Bill entitled the Employment Permits (Amendment) Bill 2012. The Government did not oppose that Bill and allowed it to progress to Committee Stage. However, the Minister expressed his intention to deal with the matter comprehensively in this Bill and to advance ahead of the Senator's Bill, thereby fulfilling the primary objective of the latter. Inspired by Senator Quinn's Bill, the Employment Permits (Amendment) Bill 2014 affords foreign nationals a defence and relieves them of an offence where they have taken all reasonable steps to comply with the legislation.

We are all acutely aware of the importance of the information and communications technology sector to the Irish economy. If that sector is to thrive it is important it has the best possible range of skilled people available to recruit. It is important that the growth of the sector is not impeded by a lack of suitably skilled staff. In this regard the reduced processing time for permit applications is to be welcomed. Despite our continuing high rate of unemployment, Ireland is experiencing skills shortages in certain key areas. The employment permits regime is designed to encourage migration of non-EEA nationals with skills that are currently in short supply so that enterprise growth and the knock-on economic benefits of such growth are not curtailed by vacancies of key personnel in the short to medium term. These skills and labour shortages are in occupations in key economic sectors, such as health care, information technology and financial services. For this reason I welcome the Bill's focus on attracting highly skilled positions to the Irish economy, which will in turn generate growth in employment opportunities and expand the pool of talent and skills available in Ireland. The continued expansion of PayPal in Dundalk is a great example of this. It employs a large number of Irish people as well as people coming from abroad. Ireland needs cross-fertilisation of ideas among different nationalities if we are to induce creativity and innovation.

The Minister stated that his ambition is to fill three out of four vacancies in the ICT sector by graduates from Irish colleges by 2018. The design and delivery of information and communications technology courses at universities will be crucial to achieving this target. The history of third level courses in this country suggests that they have been slow to adapt to market needs and we must ensure they are not slow in this case. Every support should be given to people who are willing to go back to the education system and make themselves available to work in the ICT sector. When my husband worked in the IDA early in his career, he went to UCD to persuade it to gear up its computer courses because they were not sufficient to attract multinational computer companies.

I welcome that there is a new category of employment permit for spouses, civil partners and dependants to enable family members of holders of critical skills employment permits and researchers to work in the State. This issue arose in the context of the civil partnership legislation because it was regarded as important that an individual be able to take a partner with him or her when coming to work in Ireland. This is a crucial factor in encouraging people in civil partnerships to move to Ireland. When people are making the decision to relocate to take up an employment opportunity, they will need to consider many other factors, including whether their families can travel with them. This is an overdue reform and it should underpin the other provisions of the legislation.

In discussing the issue of making it attractive for people to come to Ireland to take up employment opportunities, there are other issues to consider besides the provision of employment visas. In particular, the cost of living increasingly influences people's decisions on where to locate. In the Grand Canal Dock area of Dublin, there is a large population of people working in the ICT sector for firms like Google, Facebook and eBay. There have been reports that many newly arrived persons looking to take up employment locally have encountered considerable difficulties in obtaining suitable accommodation at a reasonable price. While this issue is outside the scope of the Bill, it is none the less an important factor in ensuring we can fulfil the demand for ICT employees. Just as we need to get employment legislation, including permits, correct, we also need to ensure those who take up those jobs enjoy a good quality of life and standards of living.

I commend Mr. Barry O'Leary on his remarkable tenure as chief executive of the IDA and welcome the visionary appointment of Mr. Frank Ryan as its chairman. Over the years, Governments of all parties have supported the IDA in presenting the image of Ireland abroad as a safe and reliable country with which to do business. Now the remarkable debacle of Garth Brooks is tarnishing that image. We need an inquiry or investigation into the matter. This controversy has undermined all the good work done by the IDA over the years. We came through the bubble and the crisis but Mr. O'Leary was able to maintain investors' faith in and optimism for Ireland. It is important to put that on the record.

We will only emerge from the current crisis by developing our economy and looking for new ideas for job creation. In addressing this issue of employment permits we must also address the needs of those who come to this country to assist us in developing our economy. We should welcome them with open arms. In this regard, I pay tribute the remarkable approach by the former Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, to giving people Irish citizenship. He awarded citizenship to 4,000 people recently. They want to be Irish citizens and to participate in the economy. In the late 1990s, when the economy began to take off, we could not get people for Lir Chocolates and we had to be imaginative in getting people from abroad when it was not the thing to do. All the people who came to Lir Chocolates were outstanding staff and we are in debt to them. It gives me great pleasure.

Some 129 languages are spoken among the people who got citizenship the other day. It was important in our economic history that we joined the EU, thanks be to God, and we leapfrogged over Britain. I also think it is important to attract people from abroad with different skills and creativity from our own. Look at the problems that President Obama has because he cannot get Congress to agree. They need new skills there but the Congress will not support that.

I thank the Minister for bringing this Bill before the House.