Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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Question 334: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of persons from Romania and Bulgaria that have been allocated personal public service numbers since 1 January 2007 that have applied for permission to work in Ireland and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14082/07]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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For the first three months of this year, 15 new employment permits were issued in respect of Romanian nationals, and 4 new employment permits in respect of Bulgarian nationals.

I understand that for the same period the Department of Social and Family Affairs issued 6,265 Personal Public Service (PPS) numbers to Romanian nationals and 289 to Bulgarian nationals.

My Department has been monitoring this situation and has been in on-going contact with the Department of Social and Family Affairs. We have been informed by that Department that the PPS numbers issued to Romanian nationals in March 07 were 50% lower than in February 2007 and almost 70% lower than in January 2007.