James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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170. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation his plans to further strengthen the immigration system including introducing a model to select immigrants based on the skills that Irish employers need to expand their business and the economy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48178/13]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department’s policy and legislative remit focuses on the skills-based requirements of the labour market whereas the Department of Justice and Equality (DJE) takes into account wider immigration and residency issues. We recognise that the two regimes are interlinked and indeed, there is close engagement between the Departments on matters of mutual concern. Nevertheless, DJE retains legal and policy primacy with regard to immigration and residency whereas this Department’s function concerns employment access to the labour market.

Economic migration policy must be flexible and responsive to different stages of economic development and to labour market conditions. An ongoing challenge for the Irish labour market is to attract from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) those skills we cannot source from within the EEA and which we need to exploit the potential for growth in high performing sectors. The focus of the Employment Permits system is to ensure that, where sufficiently qualified candidates cannot be sourced to fill a vacancy from within the pool of available labour in the EEA, non-EEA nationals with those qualifications may be recruited to ensure that enterprise can access the skills it needs to thrive.

The Highly Skilled Occupations List and the Ineligible Occupations List allow us to target immigrants with those skill-sets most required by enterprise. The lists are subject to bi-annual review. These reviews draw, in the first instance, on data on employment, vacancies, job announcements and immigration and other qualitative information held in the National Skills Database, including that collated in the National Skills Bulletin, annually published, to identify imbalances in the Irish labour market at occupational level. In the second instance, the lists are reviewed in the light of data from the Vacancy Overview Annual Report, which provides an overview of the demand for labour as measured by trends identified in advertised job vacancies.

To enhance this targeted approach to economic migration, the Employment Permits Amendment Bill will provide more flexible and targeted instruments in support of the economy’s evolving skill needs. The Bill will go to Government shortly for approval to publish.