Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

86. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment his plans to update, amend and or increase the prescribed list of work on the critical skills list; and his plans to make the application process more efficient for the applicant. [52270/21]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The employment permits system is designed to facilitate the entry of appropriately skilled non-EEA nationals to fill skills and/or labour shortages, in circumstances where there are no suitably qualified Irish/EEA nationals available to undertake the work and that the shortage is a genuine one. The system is managed through the use of lists designating highly skilled and ineligible occupations. The lists are reviewed twice a year to ensure their ongoing relevance to the State’s human capital requirements. The outcome of the most recent Review was announced on 28 October. A press release is available on my Department’s website.

Key features of the review were:

- Most construction sector jobs now eligible for a General Employment Permit

- Quota to be removed for HGV driver work permits

- 350 General Employment Permits for hospitality managers

- Social Workers to be eligible for Critical Skills Employment Permit

- Dispensing Opticians to be eligible for General Employment Permit

- New General Employment Permit quotas for 1,000 Horticulture Operatives, 500 Meat Deboners, 1500 Meat Processing operatives and 100 Dairy Farm Assistants; with a strategic review of labour attraction and retention in the sector to follow

- New General Employment Permit quota of 100 for Work Riders

In terms of the application process, my department is conscious of the recent lengthening of timeframes for processing applications and is taking a range of measures to clear the current backlog as quickly as possible. This includes redevelopment of the current employment permits IT system, which should drive further efficiencies in processing and result in increased productivity. My department advises employers to take current timelines into account as part of their recruitment plans.

The Trusted Partner Scheme is a key initiative, as part of the wider operation of the employment permits system, with regular users of the service eligible to apply to become a Trusted Partner. The Scheme not only eases the administrative burden on those utilising the service, through the removal of the requirement to replicate key information for every application made, but also allows the Department to deliver a faster turnaround for these applications, in furtherance of our commitment to provide a high-quality responsive employment permits service.

In addition the Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill sets out to consolidate the existing legislation to make a more accessible statutory basis for our economic migration system and to increase its agility and responsiveness, for example; modernising the labour market needs test, moving operational criteria to regulations to increase responsiveness, and streamlining requirements to make the grant process more efficient.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

87. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of applications to the critical skills employment permit in the past three years to date in 2021; the number accepted, refused and appealed, respectively; and the average time to receive a permit from date of application to the date of issuing the permit. [52271/21]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The employment permits system is managed through the operation of the critical skills and ineligible occupations lists which determine employments that are either in high demand or are ineligible for consideration for an employment permit and these lists are subject to twice-yearly evidenced based review.

Since March 2020, my Department has implemented Covid-19 contingency arrangements moving employment permit operations seamlessly to a totally remote working environment. In fact, Ireland was one of the few countries that has managed to keep their employment permit system fully operational throughout the crisis.

From the outset of the crisis, in order to assist the HSE and all other medical providers in the State to respond to, and to assist with, the public health response to the threat of Covid-19, all medical employment permits are expedited with immediate effect.

My Department has seen a significant increase in applications for employment permits this year. To the end of September, some 17,084 applications were received, representing a 41% increase over the same period in 2020 (12,115) and a 23% increase on 2019 (13,868), which itself represented an 11 year high in applications. To date (20/10/2021), my Department has issued some 12,186 employment permits since the beginning of the year, which represents a significant volume of activity.

Processing times have been impacted by this increase in demand but also because of the HSE cyber-attack. As a result, employment permit applications associated with the July Doctors rotation (which occurs twice yearly in January and July) had to be submitted either manually or through other nonstandard methods. This resulted in a significant additional administrative burden in dealing with these applications, requiring staff to be temporarily reassigned to assist in the process and had a direct impact on wider processing times for other permit applications.

It is important to point out that when set against other international employment permit regimes, Ireland compares favourably, even at current processing times.

However, my Department is very conscious of the recent lengthening of timeframes for processing Employment Permit applications and is committed to reducing these further. My Department is taking a range of measures to reduce the current backlog. It advises all employers to take current timelines into account as part of their recruitment plans.

My Department updates the employment permit processing timelines on its website on a weekly basis and regularly issues updates on relevant employment permit matters to Trusted Partners such as the September update on employment permit processing timelines.

Appeals received are captured collectively by all permit types at the end of each month.