Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is good to be back in this House and see everybody back in their home. I thank Senator Gallagher for raising this important matter, which has been topical over the past couple of months. The matters raised today are directly important for Monaghan and its mushroom and poultry sector. Agribusiness is extremely important for Monaghan, as it is for my county of Meath. The matters raised here have been brought to me directly by the industry as well, along with the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, earlier in the year. The Senator is right to call this out and it is a big issue to work on for the country and the sector. It is really important for Monaghan that we find solutions to the labour difficulties in the area.

The Senator mentioned mushrooms and poultry and I have engaged directly with some of the companies involved in trying to work with them on solutions. I will certainly outline where that journey is as well. I agree with the Senator that we must find a common sense solution to the peat harvesting question. Peat is required for the domestic horticultural sector and it is only 1% or 2% of what would have been harvested or used in the country over the past couple of years. There has been a massive gain already so we should try to find some way to make that work. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Malcolm Noonan, is working very closely with a group trying to make this a reality. I hope we can find a solution that works for everybody. Through innovation, research and development we will find solutions in the years ahead, and this will take a little bit longer, so in the meantime it makes sense to find some way to source the peat locally in Ireland rather than having to import it. I agree with the Senator and I hope a common sense solution can be found. I expect it will and the sector is working across numerous Departments and agencies to that end.

The employment permits system is designed to facilitate the entry of appropriately skilled non-European Economic Area, EEA, nationals to fill skills and labour shortages in circumstances where there are no suitably qualified Irish or EEA nationals available to undertake the work and the shortage is genuine. The system is managed through the operation of the critical skills and ineligible occupations lists, which are subject to twice-yearly evidence-based reviews, which is what the Senator referred to. That generally happens in the autumn, in October or November, and we are trying to ensure much of the work is now carried out during August and September, with results to be published in October. The decisions would be made at that stage. The Senator mentioned how people are waiting to see what happens in that respect and we are in the middle of that work.

In May 2018, a pilot quota-based scheme was introduced to remove certain agrifood occupations from the ineligible occupations list. The scheme provided for 2,500 general employment permits for the meat processing industry, 500 for horticulture and 150 for the dairy sector to address the immediate needs of the sectors in sourcing labour. In addition, a quota of 300 permits was granted in respect of meat deboners. To date, this pilot scheme has proved very successful for a range of employers in the sector, including those mentioned by the Senator. The difficulty is that all quotas expired in December 2019.

A review of the occupation lists is currently under way and all submissions are under active consideration, including those from the agrifood sector. I have met many of those representatives. It is envisaged that the review will be finalised in the autumn, and we are targeting early October if possible. We are working through the submissions, with over 26 such submissions from the various sectors and quite a few from agrifood businesses.

Applications for employment permits have seen a significant increase over the course of the year. As of the end of August, some 14,600 applications were received, representing a 35% increase over the same period in 2020 and a 19% increase over 2019, which itself represented an 11-year high in applications. Recently, processing times have been impacted by this significant increase in demand and by the HSE cyberattack, as has been well documented. These factors resulted in a significant additional administrative burden in dealing with applications associated with the July doctor rotation, which were submitted either manually or by other non-standard methods.That has added to and delayed processing times, which are now above ten weeks and, in some cases, above 15 weeks. We are trying to deal with that. We are putting in place extra staff to process the permit applications that are needed urgently for certain sectors. We try to operate that urgently along with trusted partners.

It is important to point out that when set against other international employment permit regimes, Ireland continues to compare extremely favourably. We managed to keep our schemes open throughout the Covid pandemic. However, my Department is conscious of the recent lengthening of timeframes for processing applications and is taking a range of measures to clear the current backlog as quickly as possible. My Department advises employers to take current timelines into account as part of their recruitment plans. That is something we discussed with the sector earlier in the year. We will make every effort to reduce the timelines as well as dealing with the review of the lists in the next couple of weeks.