John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is great to have the Minister of State in the House. One of his first appearances here as a Minister of State was for a Commencement debate on work permits and their importance that I requested this time last year. I want to touch on this in this debate. We should make no mistake about the fact that we have a rip-roaring and very successful economy, particularly by European standards. In the part of the world I come from, along the corridor between Dublin and Belfast, the economy serves as the engine of Ireland. The basis of a very successful economy like Ireland's is the ability to bring people in to work, set up their lives and make a contribution, not only to the economy but also to society. This relates to an important debate given issues concerning immigration, for example, in the past couple of months.

At the foundation of success in this area are work permits. The Minister of State and the former Minister of State, Deputy Damien English, did considerable work on this. Heretofore, it took considerable time to process work permits, and it got to the stage where people were saying they were unsure whether they wanted to work in Ireland anymore. They went elsewhere. That was not a good way to try to sell Ireland Inc. or the Irish economy. As a result of the reforms the former Minister of State, Deputy English, and the current Minister of State have introduced in the Department, the red tape around work permits has been cut dramatically. It has cut a huge amount of bureaucracy around work permits, both for the applicants and the officials in the Department processing the applications. That is really good. It is important to acknowledge today that, because of the work the Department and Minister of State have been doing, we now have more workers coming to work in Ireland than ever before. Regardless of what the media and others say, more Irish people are coming back to Ireland to work than are emigrating. I have said before in this House that people emigrate for a variety of reasons, economic ones being among the least important.

Work permits are the bedrock of our economic success. This is a good thing. People from right around the globe, not just the European Union, want to come to Ireland to live, work and contribute to society and the economy. They are highly skilled. They are people who want to come here to do jobs that Irish people do not want to do. What is happening is very good. It is a very good story for the Minister of State's Department to sell and a very good one for the Irish Government.

A year on from the Minister of State's first Commencement debate in this House, which was on work permits, I take the opportunity to commend him and the Department on really streamlining the work permit process, making it very efficient and ensuring we attract to the country the workers we need to ensure our economy continues to be one of the strongest performing economies in the European Union.