Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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169. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the extent to which employers are awaiting approval of employment visas; if particular steps are required in the short term to address these issues; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61058/21]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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172. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of applications for employment visas here; the average length of time taken to process these applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61061/21]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 169 and 172 together.

Applications for Employment Permits have seen a significant increase over the course of the year. As of the end of November, some 24,058 applications were received, representing a 62% increase over the same period in 2020 (14,846) and a 40% increase on 2019 (17,101), which itself represented an 11 year high in applications. My Department has issued some 14,254 employment permits since the beginning of the year, which represents a significant volume of activity.

As a result of the HSE cyber-attack, 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 non-standard 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.

An Action Plan has recently been developed to tackle the backlog, with both human resource interventions and systematic changes. These include additional staffing resources, a new ICT system and interim ICT solutions. In terms of systemic changes, working with the Department of Health and the HSE, we are also streamlining how we issue permits to doctors. This will bring significant efficiencies and eliminate the practice of having to re-issue a permit every 6 months to the same doctor who needs to change hospitals as part of their rotation.

Over the next 18 months a new ICT system will be developed and implemented to reduce the labour requirement of the Section. In the interim, the ICT Unit have conducted initial investigations and found short-term fixes that will help efficiency and filter out permits applications when it is evident that they cannot be granted. This will reduce interactions between staff and applicants for data corrections or clarifications.

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 update on employment permit processing timelines. As of 7th December 2021, the Employment Permits Unit are processing Standard Applications received on 11/08/21 and Trusted Partner Applications received on 03/09/21.