It is current Government policy to issue new employment permits only in respect of:
- highly skilled, highly paid positions or;
- non-EEA nationals who are already legally resident in the State on valid employment permits or;
- positions requiring specialist or scarce skills, expertise or qualifications which cannot be filled else wise.
I set out hereunder for the information of the Deputy the numbers of permits which have met the criteria and which have been issued, the numbers who have not met the criteria and have been refused, the numbers withdrawn by the applicants prior to a decision being made and the total of applications processed for each of the past 4 years to date.
The Employment Permits Section currently has approximately 400 applications on hand awaiting a decision.
Year
|
Permits Issued
|
Permits Refused
|
Permits Withdrawn
|
Total Processed
|
2008
|
13,567
|
2,288
|
339
|
16,194
|
2009
|
7,962
|
1,901
|
442
|
10,305
|
2010
|
7,714
|
973
|
213
|
8,900
|
2011
|
5,200
|
1,007
|
201
|
6,408
|
2012
|
3.104
|
740
|
232
|
4,076
|