Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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161. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the occupations and sectors on the highly skilled eligible occupations list and the ineligible categories of employment list, respectively, in tabular form. [2000/19]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The employment permits system is managed through the operation of the Highly Skilled Eligible Occupations List (HSEOL) and the Ineligible Categories of Employment List (ICEL).

Occupations listed on the HSEOL are highly skilled jobs such as professional positions in medicine, ICT, sciences, finance and business. Occupations listed on the ICEL are generally occupations with lower skills requirements, e.g. personal services, trades, operatives and there is evidence that there are more than enough Irish/EEA workers to fill such vacancies. Every other job in the labour market, where an employer cannot find a worker, may be eligible for an employment permit.

In order to ensure that the employment permits schemes are responsive to changes in economic circumstances and labour market conditions, these occupations lists are reviewed twice yearly to keep pace with rapid labour market changes and to be proactively identifying and addressing shortages as they arise.

Ireland is a leader EU -wide in linking labour market intelligence to economic migration policy and is guided by research undertaken by Solas, the Expert group of Future Skills Needs, Government Strategies as well as through a public consultation process

A Review of these lists is underway at present and is expected to be finalised before the end of January 2019. The review commenced with a public call for submissions from stakeholders and interest groups requesting changes to the lists. Submissions have been received in respect of a range of occupations and those submissions and other relevant research and data are now being examined.

Comprehensive information on the employment permit system is available on my Department's website www.dbei.gov.ie

Attachment No: 1

Attachment No: 2