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

I thank the Senator. He is right that we are trying to deal with this early and that is why, twice a year, we have this review, which is under way at this time. Usually, decisions would be made in November but we will try to get them made in October this year so we can give some clear indications.

Part of this is to gather the evidence and to prove we can source this labour locally. As the Senator will appreciate, it is very difficult to explain that we need to issue permits when there are over 100,000 people on the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, and another 100,000-plus on the live register. Much of the work we are trying to do, in conjunction with the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Heather Humphreys, through Pathways to Work, is to assist those people who are out of work today to maybe take up one of those job vacancies that are available. That is not always possible because of geography or training, but in many cases it is possible. Through Pathways to Work, we are allowing for extra money to be allocated to support businesses to take people off the live register and off PUP, but also to help those people back into training, to upskill and to get them back to a job. We will come at it from a number of angles, including Pathways to Work, job supports and incentives for industry, which will help to close some of the gap and bring people closer to a job. There are 10,000 job placements available. I urge employers to have a look at that and to maybe give people an opportunity to take on a new job.

We are reviewing the permits. If we have to intervene with the permits system and if the evidence is there, such as the evidence the Senator is bringing forward for certain sectors, we will deal with that as best as we possibly can.