Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Ireland operates a managed employment permits system maximising the benefits of economic migration and minimising the risk of disrupting Ireland’s labour market. The 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 an employment permit where there is a surplus of those skills in the domestic and EEA labour market.

In order to maintain the relevance of the lists to the needs of the economy and to ensure the employment permits system is aligned with current labour market intelligence, these lists undergo evidence-based reviews which are guided by research undertaken by the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN), the Skills and the Labour Market Research Unit (SLMRU) of my Department, SOLAS and by a public consultation.

Account is taken of education outputs, sectoral upskilling and training initiatives and their impact on the labour market. Consideration is also taken of the views of the Economic Migration Interdepartmental Group, chaired by my Department and of the relevant policy Departments represented on the IDG.

The table below shows the total number of employment permits that have issued to non-EEA applicants in the past three years up to the 8th of December 2022.

As can be seen from these figures, there has been a significant increase in the number of applications received between January 2020 and to date in 2022.