Extra 1,000 work permits for home-care sector
Changes to the employment-permits system that come into effect today (10 March) are aimed at tackling skills shortages in the planning and home-car sectors.
Employment permits allow the recruitment from outside the EEA (European Economic Area) of skilled and highly skilled personnel, where the required skills cannot be met by normal recruitment or by training.
Peter Burke (Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment) said that he had approved an extension of 1,000 general-employment permits to the current quota for the role of care workers and carers in the home.
He said that the move would help alleviate labour shortages in the sector and ensure that people could access the services they needed, where and when they needed them.
The minimum salary requirement for the permit is €30,000.
Infrastructure bottlenecks
Minister Burke has also made the role of town-planning officer eligible for a critical-skills permit.
This permit covers highly skilled professional roles that are in high demand and are not always available in the resident labour force.
“This follows engagement with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and seeks to address the ongoing critical infrastructure bottlenecks experienced in the housing and broader construction sector,” the minister stated.
The department said that the planning system was “critical to and underpins the delivery of public policy, societal, economic, and environmental objectives”.