Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for taking this matter. The reality is that the economy is starting to recover, probably at a more rapid rate than was expected. That is very welcome but one of the biggest challenges we face, if not the biggest, is the shortage of skilled labour. We are hearing that from employers right across the sector. We are very familiar with the shortage of skilled labour in the tourism and hospitality sector, which we debated in this House. We are hearing about it in haulage, from companies in the agrifood sector, in manufacturing, medical employment, and in the technology spaces where a lot of high-end jobs remain unfilled because we do not have skilled workers. We are certainly hearing about it in construction, where we need significant numbers of additional skilled workers if we are going to achieve the plans we have laid out in Housing for All.

While it is very welcome that the Government is investing heavily in our higher and further education and training programmes, and we have seen all the new apprenticeship models, it is going to take a period before we have enough skilled personnel here in Ireland. It is absolutely essential that non-EEA workers are able to come here to work, that that process be as smooth as possible and that the delays will be minimal. The problem, as the Minister of State knows, is that there are very long delays, even for trusted partners or IDA Ireland companies. My understanding is that, as of today, the Department is only now processing applications from trusted partners that were made on 15 July and standard applications that were made on 29 June. If a company makes an application in order to get a work permit for somebody to come here to fill a vacant post, it is waiting three months.

If we are to come out of this very difficult period we continue to experience, we need a strong and robust economy. This is a country whose economy is very much based on skilled labour, and we recognises the importance of such labour. Quite frankly, however, the work permit and visa system is not fit for purpose.It is neither fit for those seeking employment in all the sectors we have talked about nor for employers. It is probably the biggest barrier to our economy growing as quickly as we need it to over the next period.

I know other colleagues in this House have asked about this and it is something that is regularly raised by employer representative organisations but we need to streamline the visa and work permit system and we also need to ensure we are not seeing three or four-month waiting lists before processing even starts on any of these. Government Ministers will be coming into this House next year telling us that houses are not being built because we do not have the necessary construction workers. We will still see the problems in tourism and hospitality and the jobs in the tech sector and our hospitals cannot be filled. The primary reason that is so is because of an inadequate work permit and visa system.