Vol. 526 No. 4
191 Mr. Durkan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the length of time currently taken to process an application for a work permit; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27039/00]
Due to the continuing growth in the volume of applications received by my Department, which has now risen to over 2,300 per month, the average waiting time for processing applications is currently about four weeks. Processing time was at about six weeks in September.
A range of streamlining and organisation initiatives have now been taken to speed up the processing of applications, together with the resumption of overtime and Saturday working. In order to deal with the increasing volume of applications, sanction has now been obtained from the Department of Finance for an additional ten staff for the work permit section of the Department.
