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Skills Shortages

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 22 November 2012

Thursday, 22 November 2012

Questions (20)

John McGuinness

Question:

20. Deputy John McGuinness asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the initiatives he is taking in view of last months report by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation regarding serious skills shortages in the ICT sector here; if he supports proposals for an Irish technology visa; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51854/12]

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Written answers

I welcome the Report of Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, ‘A review of the Information Communication Technology (ICT) skills demand in Ireland’ and look forward to meeting with the Committee shortly to discuss its findings.

Ireland has to compete with other countries for migrant labour, particularly in respect of high-level skills. Skills required in the high-tech sectors are in demand and in short supply globally. While increasing the supply of high-level skills from domestic sources is the most sustainable way forward in the long term, in the short term, there continues to be a need to supplement Ireland’s skills stock through employment permits and to ensure that Ireland’s employment permits system is geared towards attracting such skills.

Current Government policy is to issue employment permits for the employment of non-EEA nationals for specific vacancies and in response to employer demand for strategic skills and labour shortages in designated occupations in key economic sectors such as health care, information technology and financial services.

The employment permits regime is supporting the enterprise sector and significant levels of applications are successful particularly those based on high skills levels. My Department’s figures indicate:

- A reduction in total applications in line with economic circumstances, but an increase in Green Card applications, in line with a greater emphasis on high value skills;

- An increase in the proportion of applications in respect of ICT job roles with applications in respect of ICT job roles being more successful than the norm. Over 90% of ICT related applications are successful and over 1,200 ICT related applications have been approved so far this year.

The Department of Justice and Equality is responsible for the implementation of policy in relation to the admission of non-EEA nationals to the State and their residence in the State. There can be some confusion with regard to the term ‘IT Visa’ as it is suggestive of a visa-based immigration system. However, the employment permit regime provides for a managed system regarding entry to Ireland’s labour market as well as powers for enforcement of employment rights. Economic migrants are a vulnerable class of people. Any actions affecting inward economic migration should be cognisant of the need to ensure that such migrants are protected and made aware of their employment rights.

Therefore, we should examine how the employment permits regime can be adjusted in order to facilitate attracting highly sought skills. Even further, we should facilitate all highly sought skills, not just those relating to the ICT sector.

My Department has reviewed its processes with a view to attracting more ICT related applications and other applications regarding highly sought skills and is confident that significant improvements can be made shortly which will greatly enhance the employment permits regime, for example:

- In conjunction with Forfás, a review is underway of the Green Card Employment Permit Scheme which is used by Ireland to meet labour market requirements where skills shortages have been identified by reference to analyses undertaken by the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs.

- An interim review of the four core employment permit types - Green Cards, Intra-Company Transfers, Work Permits and Spousal/Dependents - has identified a variety of means to improving the throughput and quality of employment permit applications. Such an initiative would favour the ICT sector in particular as it would include a streamlining of the documentary process, a reduction in the time it takes for applicants to prepare a successful application, and a significant reduction in processing times.

- Closer interactions are being cultivated with the Department of Justice and Equality with a view to providing a more coherent service across the employment permit regime and visa regime including policy convergence, greater information sharing and unified communications from both Departments in respect of labour market access.

I intend to announce a range of improvements in this regard shortly.

It is also the Government’s ambition that Ireland should take advantage of the opportunities for employment in the ICT sector and that every opportunity is afforded to our graduates and unemployed to prepare them with the skills required to work in that sector. Employment permits are but one way of increasing the level of ICT skills available in the labour market and I am mindful that improvements in the regime must be done in a manner that does not undermine the work of my colleague the Minister for Education and Skills to increase domestic supply through our education system and targeting of the unemployed. In that regard, the Minister for Education and Skills has already put in place plans to establish an overarching target of doubling the annual output from honours degree ICT undergraduate programmes to 2,000 graduates by 2018. These plans involve actions to:

- increase the domestic supply of honours degree graduates in the short term through expansion of conversion; and

- boost the longer term supply and quality of graduates from the higher education system.

Finally, work is also proceeding in my Department with regard to the preparation of new employment permits legislation which will provide for more flexibility and targeted instruments in support of the economy’s evolving skills needs. Heads of Bill were approved by Government last April and since then, my Department has been engaged with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel in order to progress the drafting of the Bill.

Question No. 21 answered with Question No. 7.
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