Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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262. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the status of an application for a work permit by a person (details supplied). [51564/18]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Employment Permits section of my Department inform me that an application for a Critical Skills Employment Permit for the person concerned was received on 29th November 2018.

The Employment Permits section is experiencing high levels of demand for employment permits this year and this has contributed to increased processing times for applications.  At end November 2018, 15,550 applications had been received, a 27% increase on the same time last year. My Department regrets the current delays, and those involved are working hard to bring processing times back to within customer service target times.

Through a combination of additional resources, fast-tracked training for new processors and various operational and ICT improvements, processing times are now reducing. Trusted Partner processing times have reduced to 5 weeks (from a peak of 7 weeks) and Standard application processing times have reduced to 11 weeks (from a peak of 16 weeks).

Further reductions in processing times are anticipated in the coming weeks as the changes being implemented by my officials continue to show results.

The Employment Permit application in question will be considered within the next 9-10 weeks.

I am determined to bring employment permit processing times back to within our customer service targets as soon as possible.