Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is important legislation and progressing it through the House has to be a priority. Slightly off the topic, I want to ask the Minister of State's view of the process of how applications are made. People pay an application fee but if the country the applicant is coming from is ruled out, the ability of the applicant to get a refund on the application becomes a problem. I know of a situation where an entity in my part of the world made an application for 20 work permits. The country the people were coming from was allowed when the entity made the application but while it was going through the process, that country was effectively ruled out and the entity was denied the right to get its money back. It was a significant sum for a small business in west Cork, which had paid €1,000 per applicant or a total of €20,000. If not in the legislation, then as a ministerial order, the Minister of State might consider allowing a refund where the status of the country the applicants are coming from changes during the process, that is, where a country that is allowed becomes a country that is not allowed. In this situation, it was not allowed, and the knock-on implication is that this small company lost the application fee, which was significant for it. I do not want to put the Minister of State on the spot but I ask her to come back to us on that issue.