We have changed many of the rules, for example, the old rule whereby an employer had to prove that he or she could not get an Irish person to do the job. When matters are brought to my attention, if an employer is prepared to give somebody a job, I accept that in the vast majority of cases it is a genuine fact that they have made every effort. We do not need to go through the kind of procedure we had in the past.
However, there are a number of difficulties. There is much short-term employment available at the moment. Some of the recruitment agencies have been in contact with my Department and with my programme manager with a view to establishing whether we would grant asylum seekers a work permit for, perhaps, a three-month period. The rule in the Department was for a minimum of 13 weeks. I want to change that because clearly the idea of not doing something worthwhile for the sake of a week is not good. In my experience the main problem seems to be in trying to match people seeking asylum with employers, in the first instance, trying to find who they are and where they are. I understand there are at least 2,000 people who qualify to be granted work permits. I hope discussions I had earlier this week with officials and recruitment companies will lead to the establishment of a practical and sensible way of linking people with jobs. Some employers have told me that some asylum seekers are not keen to give details of their names, addresses and so on, but that is probably a minority. There is huge scope to employ, perhaps not 2,000, but certainly a substantial number of those who are currently awaiting the determination of their asylum status.