The review of lists for employment permits is expected to be finalised next month, in what may help to alleviate some labour shortages in Ireland.
The review will cover the Critical Skills Occupation List and Ineligible Occupations List, and will determine what sectors will benefit from occupations that are essential to their industries being added to these lists.
“I hope we can finalise the new choices we will make, I suspect by the middle of next month,” the Minister for Enterprise, Simon Coveney said in the Dáil on Thursday, October 12.
Employment permits list
Co. Limerick TD Richard O’Donoghue called upon the minister to provide a status on the length of time “it is taking to issue permits given employers are experiencing labour shortages“.
Minister Coveney said that the current processing time for new employment permit applications is “about 18 days” or, if it is on the critical skills list, “about 16 days”.
It is a quicker time than last year’s waiting time, which stood at 21 weeks at its peak, according to Minister Coveney.
“Sections of the hospitality sector have critical employment they need to fill, as do the agri-sector and transport,” Deputy O’Donoghue said.
Minister Coveney acknowledged that “there are lots of sectors, in particular the hospitality sector but also agriculture, agri-food and construction, in which many vacancies need to be filled”.
“We need to do that by reskilling and upskilling Irish people and making sure others from other parts of the European Union and our single market can come and fill those gaps,” the minister said.
“If that is not possible, we also have to have a streamlined process around bringing in skilled workers from abroad.”
Minister Coveney added that there were 40,000 work permits issued last year, and that “it will be a similar number again this year”.
Critical skills submissions
Submissions from representative bodies, government departments, agencies, and other interested parties were welcomed in the public consultation.
The government requested that submissions would be made with regards to skills/labour shortages or surpluses in relation to occupations in various sectors that were adversely affecting industry.
Minister Coveney said: “My department is currently engaging with other departments, including the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, to consider submissions received in the last most recent public consultation to review the occupations lists which ran from June to August this year.”
According to Minister Coveney, there were over 100 submissions received during this period.