John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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331. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of Green Card applications that have been approved to date under the Special Assignee Relief Programme in each of the categories legislated for, that is jobs with annual remuneration of €60,000 or more, and jobs with annual salaries of €30,000 – €59,999. [19056/13]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The ‘Green Card’ Employment Permit is designed to attract highly skilled people into the labour market with the aim of encouraging them to take up permanent residence in the State. Eligible occupations under this type of permit are deemed to be critically important to growing Ireland’s economy, are highly demanded and highly skilled, and in significant shortage of supply in our labour market.

Occupations such as ICT professionals, professional engineers and technologists are catered for under this type of Employment Permit. Eligible occupations are largely determined in line with the regular analyses of the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs with regard to the labour market’s requirements in respect of strategically important skills. The list of eligible occupations is set out in the Highly Skilled Occupations List available on my Department’s website.

My Department examines a number of criteria when assessing Green Card Employment Permit applications. The full details of what is required are set out on the relevant application form. The status of a prospective employee’s inclusion in the ‘Special Assignee Relief Programme’ is not a factor in assessing applications under the Employment Permits system. Briefly, eligibility for a Green Card Employment Permit is largely determined by the type of occupation, the extent to which the prospective employee concerned possesses the relevant qualifications, skills and experience that are required for the employment and the proposed remuneration level.

Where the annual remuneration of the job ranges between €30,000 - €59,999 (excluding bonuses) then the occupation must be listed in the ‘Highly Skilled Occupations List’. The total number of Green Card Employment Permits issued in 2010 was 532, in 2011 910 and in 2012 1,010.

All occupations, except those listed on the ‘Ineligible Categories of Employment for Employment Permits’ or are considered contrary to the public interest are permissible where the an annual remuneration (excluding bonuses) is over €60,000. The numbers of Green Card Employment Permits issued for those years for positions where the salary was greater than €60,000 were 157 in 2010, 228 in 2011 and 304 in 2012.