James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Question 103: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation his plans to reform the work permit schemes for migrants; if his attention has been drawn to the exploitation of migrant workers under the current scheme whereby some employers are refusing to pay minimum wage and tell the employees that they are unable to change job because the employer holds the work permit; if his further attention has been drawn to the difficulties migrant workers face when they are made redundant due to the large fees and delays associated with a work permit application; if he will consider changing the scheme so that migrants are granted employment permits within a designated job category and have the right to change employer; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19840/10]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Since 2004, a key element of 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 or labour shortages in designated occupations in key economic sectors, 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 - Green Cards, Work Permits, Spousal and Dependant Work Permits and permits for Intra-company Transferees - were introduced under the Employment Permits Act, 2006 and came into effect on 1 February 2007.

In early 2009, the Department undertook a review of employment permit arrangements to ensure their ongoing relevance to the needs of the Irish labour market. As an outcome of this review, more stringent eligibility criteria were implemented for prospective new entrants to the work permit schemes from 1 June 2009 onwards. The main features of the new measures included: expanding the ineligible list of occupations for which permits can be issued; increasing by 50% the fees charged at renewal stage for new permits issued after 1 June 2009, and a reduction in the number of occupations for which Green Cards are issued.

My Department condemns any practices by employers that may result in non-compliance with employment rights entitlements or any other mistreatment of employees including those on employment permits. Ireland's Employment Rights Legislation establishes the statutory rights applicable to all people working in Ireland whether they are Irish citizens or otherwise. I would urge all whose employment rights are being breached by an employer or those who know of such exploitation, to contact the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA).

The Employment Permits Act 2006 sets out in legislation the rules governing employment permits. One of the main focuses of this Act was in increasing the rights and protections afforded to migrant workers and the means to ensure redress in the event of exploitative practices. The Act's provisions gave immigrants greater freedom, autonomy and control over their own employment choices by enabling workers for the first time to apply and re-apply for their own permit and allowing workers to change their employer after a period of a year and move to another employment in order to take advantage of better conditions or career options. Last year, my Department issued almost 1,500 employment permits in respect of employees changing to new employers.

A properly controlled employment permit system requires that permits be issued to a specific employee for a specific job with a specific employer. To do otherwise would not only risk abuse of the employment permit system but would make it much more difficult to ensure that employers observed the employment rights of employees.

Due to the prioritisation of business needs of my Department, it was necessary to re-deploy a number of staff in the Employment Permits Section to the Redundancy Payments area in early 2009 where there is a strong need for additional resources to process payments to those who have lost their jobs. This has resulted in currently higher processing times for some of the permit types. In the priority high skills area of Green Cards and Intra Company Transfers, applications are still being processed within 15 working days. In relation to Work Permits and Spousal applications, measures have been put in place to address the current wait-time. I can report that significant progress has been made in reducing the backlog in these areas.

The Employment Permits Act 2006 allows for regular review of Ireland's economic migration policies and my Department keeps these policies under review, in line with the emerging needs of the labour market, on an on-going basis.