Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 February 2022
159. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment when there will be a public consultation to review the eligibility of occupations appearing on the critical skills occupations list and the ineligible occupations list for employment permits; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6095/22]
View answerThe employment permits system is designed to facilitate the entry of appropriately skilled non-EEA nationals to fill skills and/or labour shortages over the short to medium term, in circumstances where there are no suitably qualified Irish/EEA nationals available to undertake the work and that the shortage is a genuine one.
The system is, by design, vacancy led and managed through the use of the occupations lists designating highly skilled and ineligible occupations.
The lists are reviewed twice a year to ensure their ongoing relevance to the State’s human capital requirements, guided by available research undertaken by the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN), and the Skills and the Labour Market Research Unit (SLMRU) in SOLAS. Cognisance is also taken of education outputs, sectoral upskilling and training initiatives and contextual factors such as Brexit and more recently COVID 19 and their impact on the labour market. The views of the relevant policy Departments are taken into account and as well as those of the Economic Migration Interdepartmental Group which my Department chairs and on which a number of Departments are represented.
The next review of the Occupational Lists will open up in the coming weeks during Q1 2022 and submissions will be invited through a public consultation
