Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 98: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will report on the existing provisions in relation to granting permission to work to the spouses of persons with entitlement to work here, in relation to giving long-term status to non-national persons who have worked a number of years here and who seek to commit to a permanent career here, and in relation to the balance between persons working here on working permits versus working visas; and the way in which he plans to develop a policy in the coming years in relation to these issues. [11528/05]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The spouse of a national from outside the European Economic Area, EEA, is eligible for an employment permit in the State. In accordance with normal practice, the would-be employer must make an application and demonstrate that the position cannot be filled from within the EEA. This entails advertising the position with FÁS for a period of one month. Recently, applications are only granted in respect of highly skilled and highly paid employment.

Special provisions were introduced in May 2004 that gave greater ease of access to employment to the spouses of those under the working visa-working authorisation scheme, the intra-company transfer concessions and spouses of those who had a work permit as a researcher, an academic or a medical health and social care professionals. In such cases, the employer in question is not required to advertise the position with FÁS in advance of making a work permit application and the payment of the work permit application fee is waived in this case. Such positions may be in categories that would generally be considered ineligible for work permits.

Naturalisation and residency are the responsibility of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

There are more than 25,000 persons working in Ireland under valid work permits and there could be as many as 10,000 persons working under the working visa-work authorisation scheme. Irish economic migration policy is based on the skill needs of the economy and future policy in this area will be predicated on Ireland's economic needs.