Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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358. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will provide a detailed statement on the pre-launch testing and validation process for the new online work permit application system, specifically addressing whether the system was tested under real-world load conditions; and if a parallel run was considered to mitigate risks, given the widespread login and access failures reported since its launch on 28 April 2025. [32200/25]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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359. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the specific measures identified and implemented to resolve the root causes of the persistent login and access failures experienced by users of the new online work permit application system since its launch on 28 April 2025; and when a stable and fully functional system is expected to be operational for all users. [32201/25]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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360. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of individuals that have lost their legal status or experienced employment disruption as a direct result of the system failures with the new online work permit application system since its launch on 28 April 2025; and what immediate steps are being taken by the Department to support and provide remedies for those affected. [32202/25]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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361. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the current average response time for technical support queries related to the new online work permit application system; and what steps the Department is taking to ensure accountability and improve the timeliness of responses to user complaints and technical issues. [32203/25]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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362. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will publish up-to-date statistics regarding the application backlogs, new applications lodged, and the number of complaints received and resolved concerning the new online work permit application system since its launch on 28 April 2025. [32204/25]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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363. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the reason agents and users were not consulted prior to the roll out of the new online work permit application system; and the specific actions being taken to rebuild trust and improve stakeholder engagement in future digital transformations within the Department. [32205/25]

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Department launched its new employment permits system, Employment Permits Online, in April with the majority of users having been able to register successfully and prepare and submit permit applications for processing. As of mid-June, there have been over 15,000 successful portal registrations completed, and the rate of permit application submission has returned to pre-launch levels.

The Department is aware that some users have encountered difficulties in setting up or operating their accounts. The Department has acknowledged these issues, via our dedicated EPO webpage, and is working strenuously with our external specialist provider to address them.

In many cases, issues have arisen for users because the new system operates in a different way to the previous system, or because the user is attempting to register with data that is different from the data originally provided to the Department. For example, in some cases, the person attempting to register an agent/employer account was not previously the primary contact point for the company account. In other cases, users have encountered difficulties in registration where the same email address was used previously to administer more than one company account. It is no longer possible to do this under Employment Permits Online for security, privacy and data protection reasons.

The Department has provided a range of support documentation to guide users through the set up process (how to guides, videos and Q&A material are all available on the Department’s website) and has allocated additional resources to a dedicated support mailbox team to handle support requests.

A process of pre-launch testing was undertaken in the weeks and months prior to the launch of the system. This included extensive testing of functions and workflows with a large cohort of staff across the Department’s Employment Permits and ICT units involved. Several of our larger agent customers were provided with access to the system prior to launch as part of this testing, and a familiarisation webinar, attended by almost 850 participants was held in the week before the system launched. A parallel run was considered as part of the planning for the new system but was ultimately not considered feasible given the complexity of the data migration. Monitoring on the cloud infrastructure hosting the new Employment Permits system indicates that it has generally performed well and has not experienced any significant performance degradation.

The high number of successful portal registrations, coupled with the rate of permit applications returning to pre-launch levels demonstrate that the system is working as intended for most users. There have been 3778 employment permit applications received since the system launched and 3196 employment permits have issued in that time. The Employment Permits Unit is currently processing applications received on 20 May. The issues arising for certain users at the registration stage have largely been due to legacy data issues, as well as a small number of technical issues that have arisen. Additionally, some of these issues experienced by customers at the registration stage were due to the additional data validation and security controls which the new system introduced.

The Employment Permit and ICT units of the Department continue to work to resolve these issues and to assist customers with difficulties encountered in the initial registration and permit application. While initial response times to support request exceeded customer service targets, the response time has now improved and support requests are being handled in line with the Department’s customer charter. There have been six formal complaints submitted to the Department in relation to the new system since it launched. The majority of user issues arising are now being quickly resolved by the dedicated team assigned to support user registration.

Where the delay that some companies, agents or individuals have experienced in registration has impacted on new permit and renewal applications, the Employment Permits Unit will offer maximum flexibility in terms of processing those applications. The Department is not aware of any cases where individuals have lost their legal status as a result of delays or technical issues with the system.

This project represents the first phase of the planned digital transformation of the employment permit system, and it will be an iterative process. To that end we welcome all feedback from service users and will continue to consult with stakeholders as we progress through subsequent phases.

It is also worth noting that the backend system for internal processing of employment permits has worked very well and early indications are that the new system will deliver efficiencies in the processing of employment permits, provide additional security and privacy controls to protect customer data as well as providing a modern and scalable platform which can deliver further enhancements to the customer experience and the efficiency of the employment permits application and processing system.

Further information on some of the key aspects of the new system, and details of some of the technical issues identified and resolved, is presented in the attached annex.