The review proposes changes to the Employment Permit Acts to make the system more agile.
Minister Heather Humphreys said: “I want to modernise the system and ensure that it is capable of adapting to changes in the future, as well as fluctuations in demand across the economic cycle.”
An entirely new bill is proposed, as any further amendment to the Employment Permit Acts 2003-2014 would significantly increase the complexity of the current legislative framework.
Transparency
The minister added: “The consolidation of the existing legislation in this new bill will enhance the statute’s accessibility and improve the transparency of our regulatory process.
“Among other things, I am proposing to introduce a seasonal employment permit. Ireland is an outlier in not having this permit type, and I want to better cater for short-stay and recurrent employment in sectors like horticulture, farming and tourism.”
Revision
She continued: “In addition, I am providing for an extensive revision of the Labour Market Needs Test. This is a requirement whereby employers need to firstly advertise vacancies within Ireland and across the European Economic Area (EEA).
The overhaul will make it more relevant, efficient, and modernised to reflect current advertising practices. It will also ensure that the test is more targeted and effective in reaching Irish and European jobseekers in the first instance.”
The minister also intends to introduce a Special Circumstances Employment Permit. This would allow for bilateral reciprocal agreements with other states and could be used, for example, to address a need for a very unusual, but critically important skillset, for which no formal training is available in Ireland.
Changes
The proposed legislative changes include:
Streamlining the processes for ‘trusted partner’ and renewal applications,
Improving the agility of the system by moving operational processes to regulation for easier modification, as circumstances require,
Fees refund
Allowing for the refund of fees where the employment permit cannot be taken up in prescribed circumstances,
Simplifying the definition of remuneration and requirements around it,
A change to allow the 50:50 rule -- which requires that 50% of an employer’s staff be EEA nationals before an employment permit may be granted -- be waived in all cases where the permit holder would be the sole employee.
This would be subject to the employer demonstrating that they have made efforts to recruit from within Ireland and across the EEA in the first instance. The redrafting will impose the 50:50 requirement from the point at which a second employee is contracted.
The Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation will now engage in pre-legislative scrutiny and will work with the Office of the Attorney General in preparing the legislation.
Employment permits system
General policy is to promote the sourcing of labour and skills needs from within the workforce of Ireland, the European Union and other EEA states.
Permits for highly skilled personnel from outside the EEA can be granted where the requisite skills cannot be met by normal recruitment or by training.
The permit policy is a response to addressing skills deficits, but it is not intended over the longer term to act as a substitute for meeting the challenge of upskilling the State’s resident workforce, the department says.
Occupations lists
The permits system is managed through lists designating highly-skilled and ineligible occupations.
The lists are reviewed twice a year using research undertaken by the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs and other experts in the labour market, including the Skills and Labour Market Research Unit at SOLAS.
The department also invites submissions by means of a twice-yearly open consultation on its website.
For the purposes of the employment permits system, occupations fall into three categories:
Categories
1) Occupations listed on the Critical Skills Occupations List are highly skilled professional roles that are in high demand, and are not always available in the resident labour force and include roles such as medicine, ICT, sciences, finance and business.
Special “fast-track” conditions attach to this permit type, including the eligibility to apply to the Department of Justice and Equality for family members to accompany the permit holder immediately; and, after two years, may apply for permission to work without the requirement for an employment permit.
The current minimum remuneration thresholds for a Critical Skills Employment Permit are €30,000 and €60,000, differentiated by qualification and experience levels.
2) Ineligible occupations are those with evidence that there are more than enough Irish/EEA workers to fill such vacancies. Employment permits are not granted for these occupations. Ineligible occupations are generally lower-skilled occupations, such as personal services and operatives.
3) Every other job in the labour market, where an employer cannot find a worker, are eligible for an employment permit.
Occupations such as these may be skills of a more general nature, and are eligible for a General Employment Permit.
This permit type is renewable and, after five years, the applicant may apply to the Department of Justice and Equality for long-term residency permission.
The current minimum remuneration thresholds for this permit type are €30,000 plus €27,500, and €27,000 and €22,000 as exceptions for certain categories of employment.