Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

946. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment for each of the past five years, the number of employers who undertook a Labour Market Needs Test to see if there was anyone in the State/EEA who could fill a vacancy and, having found there was no one suitable, applied for a visa; and the number of such occasions where a visa was subsequently granted, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43356/25]

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Ireland operates a managed employment permits system maximising the benefits of economic migration and minimising disruption to Ireland’s labour market.

The system is designed to facilitate the entry of appropriately skilled non-EEA nationals to fill skills and/or labour shortages required to develop and support enterprise for the benefit of our economy. However, this objective must be balanced by the need to ensure no suitably qualified Irish/EEA nationals are available to undertake the work and that the shortage is genuine one.

The Government’s policy is that employment opportunities which arise in Ireland should, in the first instance, be offered to suitably skilled Irish and other EEA nationals and should only be offered to non-EEA nationals where no suitable candidate emerges from within the EEA to fill the vacancy.

In order to ensure that job opportunities are made available to Irish and EEA nationals, employers must satisfy a Labour Market Needs Test before a General Employment Permit or Contract for Services Employment Permit can be issued to a non-EEA national. There are certain exemptions where a Labour Market Needs Test is not required, for example if the role on offer is on the Critical Skills Occupation List , where the job offer is in respect of an eligible employment with a minimum annual remuneration of €64,000, or if a recommendation from Enterprise Ireland or IDA Ireland has been made in relation to the job offer in respect of one of their client companies.

The table below shows the number of new General Employment Permit and Contract for Services Employment Permits issued in the last five years. The majority of the permit applications below would have required a Labour Market Needs Test unless they could satisfy one of the exemption criteria.