Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. While I understand the 50:50 rule, the reality is that citizens need to be made aware of this if we are to lift any burden from the employer. We all know how employers work. They are good people and I would not want to cast any aspersions. However, while the guardrail protects the 50:50 rule, there are many new citizens coming to live and work here, and simply ensuring that citizens of the State have the information on a digital platform is not robust enough. This can be done by way of amendment, although I know that given the process of legislation, it would be difficult to do it at this late stage if we want to get the Bill passed. Nonetheless, I ask the Minister of State to try to stitch it in.

In the past we had unemployment figures that were pretty high, yet employers still wanted to bring in people on work permits. That is their right and they are entitled to do that. However, if those who have a right to work are living in the State - whether they were citizens originally is not the point - they need to know about this. It is incumbent on us, in this instance, not to in any way weaken that particular stipulation. It is not going to change anything. It is just going to be a further belt and brace to ensure that - I should not use the word “citizens” - those who are living here and have an entitlement to work here have access to that information. By the way, that includes many migrant people who have come here and now have an entitlement to work after six months. It is important that they would have access to that information, as well as our regular people who are at work.

The Government needs to stitch that into a national publisher that has a domestic footprint, of which we have many and it does not have to be one in particular. Just leaving it as “online platform” leaves it open to that being a small, poorly circulated and poorly read platform. We can say that we have ticked the box and away we go, but that is not necessarily good policy. I am sure it is something that has been overlooked at a time we are trying to get more people in. Many of the employers in my constituency are struggling to find employees, so it is the right thing to do and we do not want to do anything that would impede that.

Like the Cathaoirleach, I have been around long enough to know that this boom is not going to continue. There will be a dip at some point when, from an employment perspective, we will be trying to protect those who live here and have an entitlement to work here. It would be foolhardy not to include something like that right now.