System of work permits for non-EU citizens to be reviewed

THE Government has confirmed it is reviewing the work permit system in light of the economic downturn.

Citizens of non-EU member states, apart from Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, require an employment permit to work in this country. Labour Affairs Minister Billy Kelleher said that at any one time there are about 30,000 people, or 1.5% of the working population, working on such a permit.

“Over the years what has happened is that someone has applied for a work permit, they would have remained in the state working and then, after a number of years, they would apply for residency. That is why the figure would be lower than people would expect,” he said. “The work permit system is labour market-driven and vacancy-driven.”

He said the focus of the review would be on the issuing of permits to new arrivals.

“All of this is just discussion and no decisions have been made. Primarily, the work permit system is labour market-driven and is vacancy-driven,” he told RTÉ. “We have been reviewing these issues on an ongoing basis for many years. It is based on FÁS’s labour-needs surveys and whenever they feel there is a particular area in the economy that has an over-subscription of European labour then that would be reviewed as an ineligible category.

“We are not looking at ways of tightening up the system. We are looking at ways of making the system more efficient reflecting the needs of the labour market. We have a situation where we have a changed economic system, everyone is aware of that so there is no point in being able to apply for a work permit knowing that it is going to be ineligible at the end of the day.”

In recent weeks a number of Fianna Fáil politicians have been calling for a reduction in the number of permits being issued. Earlier this month Cork North Central TD Noel O’Flynn said there are a large number of skilled workers unemployed in Ireland, both Irish and EU nationals, and he said employers were obliged to fill positions from this pool of workers, and shouldn’t need to bring in extra workers.

Mr Kelleher said the Government needed to remain flexible. “There are certain areas where there are skill shortages still, particularly at high end. Some multinationals might have a company in Ireland and elsewhere in the world and might need to transfer people between the two so we have to have some flexibility.”