I propose to take Questions Nos. 8, 13 and 102 together.
Non-EEA nationals who are legally employed in the State may be joined by non-visa required non-EEA family members immediately, provided they are in a position to support them without access to public funds. A majority of the non-EEA nationals to whom work permits were issued last year come within the non-visa required category. Accordingly, if the family members of the persons referred to by the Deputies are non-visa required nationals, then no waiting period applies to their joining them here.
The position in respect of non-EEA nationals who are legally employed in the State and who wish to be joined here by visa required family members is that the worker in question must have been in the State for a period of 12 months and have the expectation of remaining here for at least a similar period before he or she can be joined here.
However, as I set out in my response to Question No. 373 of 12 December 2000, the require ment that a non-EEA national be in employment for 12 months before he or she can be joined by visa required family members was reduced by me to three months in July 2000, in respect of certain categories of highly sought after skilled workers. The categories in question are participants in the new streamlined working visa scheme who include IT and telecommunications professionals, construction professionals and nurses, doctors, including temporary registered doctors and persons legally employed in other high skill areas on a case by case basis and with particular regard to any advice provided by relevant State and semi-State bodies.
If the family members of the persons referred to in the Deputies' questions are visa required, they would therefore benefit from this relaxation. Information regarding this change in practice has been widely circulated since its introduction by me last summer but if the Deputies have any particular case in mind where a person has been unable to avail of the new arrangements, I would be happy to have inquiries made on the person's behalf. I will of course also continue to deal sympathetically with individual cases where exceptional humanitarian circumstances apply.
While I fully intend to keep this matter under ongoing review, in consultation with my Government colleagues as appropriate, I am not satisfied that a further change in procedures is warranted at this time.