Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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384. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the average processing times for employment permits in 2025; the way this compares with the same period in 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51706/25]

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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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.

My Department is committed to ensuring that employment permit applications are processed in a timely and efficient manner, in line with operational capacity and demand, while maintaining a responsive system that supports Ireland’s evolving labour market needs.

The Department launched a new cloud-based platform, Employment Permits Online, in April of this year, which is designed to streamline application handing and offer an enhance user experience. There has been an anticipated increase in processing times as resources were diverted to user support during the first months following the launch of this project. Processing times are expected to drop over the coming months as resources are returned to processing full time.

As of 26 September 2025, the average processing times for employment permit applications are as follows:

• General Employment Permits: approximately 40 business days.
• Critical Skills Employment Permits: approximately 26 business days.

• For General Employment Applications, the average was 15 business days (Trusted Partner applications were processed in approximately 10 business days).
• For Critical Skills permits, the average was 15 business days (Trusted Partner applications were processed in approximately 10 business days).