Vol. 533 No. 6
96 Mrs. Owen asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of times contact has been made with the out-of-office hours telephone service between immigration officers and the work permit section of her Department; when the service was established; and the circumstances of each out-of-hours contact. [9691/01]
The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform informed the Dáil on 30 January 2001 that an arrangement had been agreed between my Department, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Garda National Immigration Bureau to deal with any future cases where persons arrive in the State with visas obtained on the basis of validly issued work permits but where the jobs in respect of which the permit was issued no longer exist and where the employer in question has made no attempt to notify the Irish authorities prior to the departure of the persons in question. He further indicated that measures to give effect to that arrangement were being put in place.
Since then further discussions have taken place between the two Departments on the precise nature of the measures in question and on the most efficient mechanism for giving effect to those measures, taking into account the views of the operational staff who are directly involved in their implementation. The element of the arrangement to which her question refers was put in place on 28 March 2001 and since then it has not been necessary to utilise that service, which of its nature should not have to be used frequently.
It should also be noted that the measures agreed embody general advice on the necessity for work permits in certain situations and technical advice on the validity of suspected forgeries.
