Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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In most cases where a non-EEA national wishes to work in Ireland, he or she must apply to my Department for an employment permit. The employment permits system has been designed to ensure that the employment rights of migrants are observed. The Employment Permits Acts support employment rights compliance in the State and protection of employment rights for migrants by, inter alia, ensuring that there is a written contract of employment in place, prohibiting deductions from the remuneration of the permit holder for fees incurred in the application process and setting minimum remuneration levels.

Immigration and visa permission policy falls under the remit of the Department of Justice and non-EEA nationals seeking permission to enter the State must interact with the Department of Justice for entry and residence permission. The Atypical Working Scheme is one of the schemes operated by the Department of Justice to facilitate entry into the State.

The Atypical Working Scheme was developed and is run by the Department of Justice, in order to facilitate specialised, highly-skilled employment of a short term nature (generally less than 90 days) that is not supported by current employment permit legislation.

While the Atypical Working Scheme is outside of the employment permits process, it relies on the same terms and conditions applying to those granted employment permits. As with the Employment Permit Scheme, any contract offered must be in line with national and European employment law.

The Department of Justice recently led a cross departmental review group to consider the AWS for non-EEA crew in the Irish Fishing Fleet on the basis of ongoing criticism of the scheme by various stakeholders. My department was actively involved in the review and recommendations will be brought to Government.

The day to day running of the AWS scheme falls within the responsibility of the Minister for Justice.