Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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353. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the steps she is taking to identify areas in which there are particular labour shortages; the measures she is taking to address these shortages; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30689/18]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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354. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation her plans to identify the reason for labour shortages in particular sectors; if she has examined measures to address these shortages; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30690/18]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 353 and 354 together.

The Expert Group on Future Skills Needs, the Secretariat to which is based in my Department, is an independent, non-statutory body. The Group has a broad sectorial membership including representatives from the business community, education and training providers, trade unions, and a small number of Government Departments and agencies.

The Group’s mandate is to carry out research, analysis and horizon scanning in relation to emerging skills requirements at thematic and sectorial levels. This analysis can include the identification of any reasons for shortages or barriers to participation in particular sectors. Its follow up work involves engagement with the Department of Education and Skills, Higher Education Authority, SOLAS and other relevant bodies to produce an agreed action plan to address the skills needs identified.

Recently completed and ongoing work being undertaken by the EGFSN includes analyses of skills needs or skills implications relevant to the food and drink sector, design, high level ICT, trade related skill sets in the context of Brexit and digitalisation.

As part of the new national skills architecture, the EGFSN presents its findings to the National Skills Council, chaired by the Minister for Education and Skills, which, together with additional skills and labour market intelligence provided by the Regional Skills Fora, Skills and Labour Market Research Unit (SLMRU) in SOLAS, and information on employment permit trends, provides a mechanism for mediating demands on resources in a manner that facilitates the prioritisation of investment in identified skills needs, and enhancing the responses by education and training providers to provision and delivery of those needs.

The research of the EGFSN and the SLMRU also informs my Department’s Economic Migration Policy Unit. This Unit has the responsibility for the employment permits system which is managed by the operation of the Highly Skilled Eligible Occupations List and the Ineligible Categories List. The employment permits regime is designed to facilitate the entry of appropriately skilled non-EEA migrants to fill skills shortages. The objective is balanced by the need to ensure that there are no suitably qualified Irish/EEA nationals available to undertake the work and the shortage is a genuine one. The rationale underpinning the inclusion or omission from the occupation lists is informed by EGFSN, the SLMRU and is augmented by a consultation process that includes calls for submissions. This process is regularly reviewed to ensure that it is operating efficiently.

The analysis of the Expert Group on Future Skills has been reflected in the overarching strategies for the education and training system published in recent years. These include Ireland’s National Skills Strategy 2025, and the Action Plan for Education 2016-2019, including its associated annual implementation plans, both of which have been developed by the Department of Education and Skills.

This analysis has also informed the development of my own Department’s framework policy for enterprise policy, Enterprise 2025- Ireland’s National Enterprise Policy 2015-2025, its recent refresh, Enterprise 2025 Renewed, and the instrument for the annual implementation of the objectives set out in Enterprise 2025, the Action Plan for Jobs, which seeks to create the optimum conditions for job creation within the economy, including through ready availability of relevant skills and talent.