Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy English.

Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail)
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A Chathaoirligh, I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to raise this matter. I know from listening to all the requests that have been made to you that it is hard to include everybody. We all understand that you have to make these decisions.

I welcome the Minister of State. I am sorry I missed meeting him at the battle in Navan last Sunday when the Rossies, Roscommon, took down the Royals, Meath. I only realised when I was talking to the Minister of State earlier that he was there, but I am sure there will be further battles. It was all good and friendly in the end despite the little bit of ruaile buaile.

Before I outline an example of the serious situation I am raising, I wish to acknowledge that the Minister of State is working hard on this matter. We will have a friendly discussion about it and I am sure the Minister of State knows where I am coming from on this issue, which is the serious delay in processing work permits through the employment permits online system, EPOS. It should take six to eight weeks to process work permits online. Employers are encouraged to use online systems, and there is a trusted partner status for business which is supposed to make it faster. I will give the Minister of State an example of a local business. I am sure the Minister of State has such examples in his county and that he is aware of them throughout the country.

This company has trusted partner status. It applied for permits last October. It desperately needs workers. It is a huge firm and it is expanding nationwide all the time.It looked for permits last October. The good news is that two of the permits came through in recent days but 18 weeks later it is still waiting for a number of others to come.

The online system states it is processing applications from 29 September. This is at a time of unprecedented difficulty for business in accessing staff. We would think that we should really be speeding up the process. I note the Minister of State announced some decisions last autumn. As he knows, business is crying out for staff. The latest CIF survey found that 83% stated there had been a year-on-year increase in the cost of labour in the past quarter. A similar proportion expects this trend to continue. Almost three quarters of those surveyed in the CIF report stated they had difficulties in accessing staff. The one thing that strikes me, whether in a small town, Dublin city or a major regional town, is the number of notices that can be seen in windows of small and not so small companies crying out for staff. It is very noticeable.

In the current circumstances we need to speed up the processing times for standard and trusted partner applications. The Minister of State knows as well as I do, and perhaps better, that between 30,000 and 40,000 jobs are needed in hospitality. We have issues with carers. The money is there and the Government has provided significant money but we cannot get carers. Haulage companies cannot get drivers. In virtually every area of Irish business life today the jobs are not there. We desperately need these jobs as quickly as possible to fill the vacancies. Our economy will be very strong. All the indicators are that over the coming three to four years we will be in an extremely strong position. It would be a pity if it were to be destroyed by a lack of jobs in a number of sectors at present. I know it is a challenge for the Government. I know it is not easy. I appreciate the Minister of State is doing his best. I look forward to hearing his reply.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I am more sorry for the result in Meath then missing Eugene at the match. I hope we will get a chance for revenge. I am also sorry I was not able to meet Senator Murphy on the day he was in Navan. I was supporting Meath against Roscommon and supporting Trim in Dublin. We lost on both occasions. We will recover and get back.

We have discussed this issue quite a lot in the House. Most Senators were on the ball and raised it last autumn before others knew it would be a big issue. At the time we tried to respond and I gave commitments that we would make changes to staffing levels and put a plan in place to deal with it. Those plans are in place but we cannot see the results just yet. To be very clear and honest, we are not happy with the time limits. Nobody could stand over timelines of up to 16 to 18 weeks, and 20 weeks in some cases, to deal with a permit. It is a complicated system. We are trying to improve that situation. The sheer volume of applications is part of the difficulty.

We are not happy with it. I am not happy with it, the Tánaiste is not happy with it and neither is the Department. We are putting in place plans to fix this once and for all. I am not trying to defend it but I will give the background to what is behind it. Staff have been working extremely hard. They have been working overtime and at weekends to try to get these applications processed. We will get there but it will take a few more months for the timelines to reduce. There will be improvements from this month on.

I thank Senator Murphy for raising the matter. Ireland's employment permit system continued to operate throughout the pandemic. The Department made a Covid-19 contingency plan in March 2020, moving the employment permit operations seamlessly to a totally remote working environment. It adjusted operations to accept all documents and applications electronically. This in itself was a major change and we handled it at the time. Ireland is one of the few countries that has managed to keep the employment permit system fully operational throughout the crisis. The Department agreed with the immigration service delivery in the Department of Justice soft-copy arrangements for issuing employment permits as a temporary measure. We tried to respond immediately to the challenges that Covid brought to us.

From the outset of the crisis in order to assist the HSE and all other medical providers in the State to respond to and assist with the public health response to the threat of Covid-19, all doctor and nurse employment permit applications were expedited. This is ongoing and it is a priority. Last year, there were close to 5,000 permit applications for medical personnel.

The Department has seen unprecedented increases in the volume of applications for employment permits over the course of 2021. In total last year, 27,666 applications were received. This represented a 69% increase over the same period in 2020 and a 47% increase on 2019, which in itself represented an 11-year high. The Department issued 16,275 employment permits last year and also processed a total of close to 18,000 applications. There has been a serious ramp up of activity and volume. Quite a high number of applications are still being processed. This reflects that there is a strong employment market out there and we are correct to say there will be a jobs-led recovery. This brings with it complications such as these that have to be teased out.

In addition, the extension of categories of employment permits following the latest review of the occupation list has increased availability of employment permits for these roles. This was in response to wishes raised here with regard to horticulture, food production, meat processing plants and other areas highlighted in the Seanad. I gave a commitment we would respond to this and we did so last October. This has resulted in thousands more applications. Processing times have been impacted by this increase in demand and because of the HSE cyberattack. As a result of the cyberattack, employment permit applications associated with doctors' rotation, which occurs twice yearly in January and July, had to be submitted manually or through other non-standard methods. This resulted in a significant additional administrative burden dealing with these applications requiring staff to be temporarily reassigned to assist in the process. This had a direct impact on wider processing times for other permit applications. This had a knock-on effect throughout 2021.

I and officials in the Department recognise the impact delays in processing times for employment permits have for businesses and their workers. A plan of action is being developed to meet the challenges and reduce the backlog built up in recent months. The plan includes additional staffing and systematic changes. The staffing actions being taken include the recruitment of additional permanent and temporary staff. This is an increase of 69% of our permanent capacity and 125% including temporary staff to deal with the backlog.

On 2 February additional approval was granted to increase permanent capacity by 125% and to increase overall capacity by 225% from the original yearly base of early November. This means the processing team will have more than tripled in size by late March compared with last November. The temporary reassignment of staff from other areas in the Department with relevant skills is also something we are implementing. We also have maximum hours of overtime for the existing team and former processors. We are trying everything to deal with these applications. There is a backlog now and we predict there will be ongoing demand for these permits. Many sectors are under pressure to find the staff they need.

We will review the sectors again in the coming weeks. We will start that process. We have tried to respond to genuine proven needs where the evidence is there. Senator Murphy mentioned carers and they are dear to the heart of everyone here, particularly carers in the home. There is an issue with gathering all of the evidence we need to prove we need to use the permit system to solve it. At present they are not within the permit structure. We are willing to look at this. We have engaged over the past year but evidence has not been gathered. I ask any sector or employer having difficulty to engage with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the sector's parent Department. Employers should also engage with the Department of Social Protection, which can identify through the high numbers of people on the pandemic unemployment payment or jobseeker's payments whether people are available to do some of these jobs. Training is taking place. Anybody who is short of staff should look at the Pathways to Work document that sets out the policy. It brings together all of the Departments in an approach to assist employers and employees to fill some of these jobs, if at all possible.

Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State. He has given a very honest assessment of the situation that exists. I should, of course, have mentioned the whole area of construction and retrofitting. When the one-stop shop gets up and running many people will see they will be able to carry out this work. I hope there will be low-cost loans. We will need extra workers in this regard. I accept we have a massive apprenticeship programme that will mean more trained people coming on line before too long. I accept the Minister of State and the Government appreciate the difficulty in this situation. It is very important for the economy that we get these workers. I look to progress in the future.

This year, the Government has provided a lot of money for mental health support. In my county one of the problems is that where, for example, seven consultants and special nurses are required, four of the positions can be filled but the other three positions cannot be filled because there is nobody to backfill the jobs of those who take them. This means the service cannot get up and running. This is another area in which we should be making every effort to try to get people into the sector. I appreciate the reply of the Minister of State.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I will keep it short this time. The Senator has identified another area of concern. We made changes in the list last year to reflect demand. The Senator identified the area of construction. We made changes to the scheme last year whereby the majority of jobs in the construction sector are eligible for permits or do not need them at all. The Senator also flagged the retrofitting plan. We know we need to go from having 4,000 people in that sector to 17,000 people. We have the potential to achieve this from within the country and within the EU through training programmes that are in place through the education and training boards, the further education and training sector and throughout the education system.Employers and potential employees have to engage in that system and work together. We have responded by doubling the number of potential areas in which people can achieve an apprenticeship over the past couple of years. The number of apprentices has increased from 1,000 to nearly 8,000 per year, and we want to increase that figure to 10,000. This is all achievable, if the system and employer organisations work with us and use the education system which is there to be used.

I stress again that there are supports available for people who are out of work and want to retrain and take up a new career. There are supports for employees and employers. The pathways to work that are in place are not being fully utilised. If any sector asks me to make changes in departments, I will ask them whether they have engaged with the systems and departments that try to solve these problems which are of a more local nature.