Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 146: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if she will review the system of work permits and working visas in view of the deteriorating economic situation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4185/09]

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Since 2004, Irish labour market policy has been to ensure that general labour and skills needs are met from within the workforce of the European Union. For strategic skills/labour shortages in designated occupations in key economic sectors such as healthcare, information technology and financial services, Government policy is to issue employment permits for the employment of non-EEA nationals for specific vacancies and in response to employer demand. The various schemes that give effect to such policies were introduced under the Employment Permits Act, 2006.

Given that our current employment permit arrangements were designed to be vacancy-driven, the numbers of permit applications and consequent numbers of permits issued over the last six months have been showing a consistent downward trend.

I am currently having our employment permit arrangements reviewed to ensure their ongoing relevance to the needs of the Irish labour market.