Neale Richmond (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Pat Breen, and thank him for taking this Commencement matter. I also thank the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Heather Humphreys, for the reply to the letter I sent her in September about this issue.

I will address three key areas related to work permits, an issue that presents a growing problem in the State. Applicants for work permits are waiting on average for eight or 12 weeks for their applications to be processed. These people are living in limbo. They may come here under other arrangements or are waiting in third countries to see when they can move here or arrange the practical aspects of life. The long waiting time is having such a negative impact that we see many job offers withdrawn and many lives being put on hold owing to the delays in the processing system.

The work permits system also has a major impact on employers. This is one of the biggest challenges facing the State as we hurtle brilliantly towards full employment. Much of the credit for this is due to the Department and its hard work. There are a number of key sectors, especially in my area of south Dublin, which simply cannot recruit staff. These are good, high-paying, highly-skilled jobs, for which we need citizens from third countries, that is, countries outside the European Union, because people from the European Union either will not or cannot do them. These are in many areas, including IT, financial services and hospitality. Every day, costs are being imposed on customers because businesses cannot maintain the requisite level of competitiveness. It stops businesses from expanding and trying to address the issue of Brexit. The high-level financial services companies we are trying to attract need to know they will have enough bookkeepers, accountants and IT professionals to fill the gap. We are not quite able to provide them with that assurance.

Tied into that issue is the issue of companies that wish to invest in Ireland or locate here, whether financial services or technology companies. These are companies from outside the European Union that want to set up an office here. They view Dublin or Ireland as an excellent hub or base for the European market with obvious ties to the UK market. However, they cannot bring key personnel to this country to work in their Irish operations. They are waiting for at least 12 weeks, often much longer, before they can open their operations because they cannot secure a work permit for a chief financial officer, CFO. He or she may be from South Africa, the United States or Asia, but he or she has to wait. Every day that businesses cannot open here costs them money. It also costs employees their livelihoods and forces many of them to give up their rental accommodation or jeopardise their chance to apply for a mortgage.

I cannot stress strongly enough how important it is that we get this matter resolved as soon as possible. Can resources be reallocated to speed up the applications process? Much has been done by the Department to change the eligibility criteria for work permits, which is excellent. However, those who need work permits are waiting for too long, as are employers who need employees. I fear this is having a detrimental effect on a booming economy.

Neale Richmond (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for his comprehensive reply and the heartening statistics he outlined. I acknowledge the efforts of his Department and appreciate its ongoing engagement in this area. It is open and recognises there is an issue which needs to be addressed.

However, as we face into a chaotic global economic scene with Brexit approaching and the regressive trade policies of Trump and certain other colleagues on the Continent, Ireland must seize every opportunity and ensure everyone knows it is open for business. We must ensure that corporations know that not only can they move here but also that the labour from abroad needed to staff these organisations can look to Ireland as an open, welcoming and efficient place in which to move and work. We need that talent to come into the country. While a slowdown might be forecasted, if we want to fulfil the aim of being an island at the centre of the world, we need to address this issue now and maintain that level of proactivity to ensure we can ride out what will be a difficult economic period.