Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Employment Permits Section of my Department informs me that all applications for employment permits are dealt with in date order. Details of the current processing dates are available on the Departments website and are also outlined in the reply to the TD’s other PQ 17286/24.

In order to maintain the relevance of the employment permits occupational lists and to ensure that the system is aligned with current labour market intelligence, the lists undergo periodic evidence-based review involving a public/stakeholder consultation. The most recent consultation on the lists took place in the third quarter of 2023 and resulted in and a significant expansion to both the critical skills and eligible occupations list and the introduction of new quotas.

Employers who are experiencing difficulty in recruiting staff are advised to partake in the next public consultation for the next Review of the Occupations List (date to be decided) which provides stakeholders with the opportunity to make evidence-based submissions to help inform the decision-making process of the Interdepartmental Group on Economic Migration Policy.

An Employer can also request to have an application for an Employment Permit expedited. This will be considered only in exceptional circumstances and each request is considered on a case-by-case basis. The Department can only consider a request to expedite an employment permit application where a detailed business case is provided.

Details of the exceptional case must be submitted to the Department on the official expedite request form, (available on our website), which is a prerequisite for DETE to consider any such request. A separate expedite request form is required for each application.

Once the business case is completed it should be submitted to Employmentpermits@enterprise.gov.ie for consideration. It is important to point out that the completion of a business case does not guarantee that an expedite will be facilitated.

The Employment Permits processing times are updated on a weekly basis at the following link: enterprise.gov.ie/en/What-We-Do/Workplace-and-Skills/Employment-Permits/Current-Application-Processing-Dates/

There is also an Online Status Update Enquiry - where details on a particular application can be found on the following link: enterprise.gov.ie/en/What-We-Do/Workplace-and-Skills/Employment-Permits/Employment-Permit-Status-Form/