Report finds schemes offering non-EU visas for business a success

Efforts to attract more business people and entrepreneurs from outside the EU are working.

A new ESRI report finds that business-related visas represented the second largest category granted in 2014, at almost 17% of over 90,000 visas.

And the immigrant investment programme has seen 55 permissions granted since 2012, worth between €500,000 and €2 million each.

The ESRI's Egle Gusciute who led the research, said it is a new scheme, but has had quite a high take-up.

Looking at the data for the immigrant investors programme and the startup entrepreneur programme, the numbers seem quite low – but from the Department Justice and Equality's perspective, it’s seen as adequate.

"They seem to attract high-worth investment and high-potential startups. For example, the atypical working scheme has been hugely successful. In 2014, there were 11,300 permits issued - mostly to Indian, Japanese, and US nationals."

She said the schemes have been introduced to increase flexibility in the system.