Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 July 2022
1743. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Health if occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and physiotherapists are included on the critical skills list for recruitment outside of the European Union; the date that these professions were added to the critical skills list; if any other health and social care professions were added to the critical skills list in the same period; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40218/22]
View answerIreland’s employment permits system is managed by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. It is designed to attract highly skilled workers from outside the EEA to Ireland, to meet skills demand in the economy where those skills can’t be accessed through the resident labour force, in the short to medium term. This objective must be balanced by the need to ensure that there are no suitably qualified Irish/EEA nationals available to undertake the work and that the shortage is a genuine one.
The system is vacancy led and managed through the operation of the Critical Skills and Ineligible Occupations Lists which determine employments that are either in high demand or are ineligible for an employment permit where it is evidenced that there is more than sufficient availability of those skills in the domestic and EEA labour market.
The Deputy will be happy to hear that on Monday, 20 June 2022, Damien English TD, Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail, announced changes made by S.I. to the employment permits system which included adding the occupations of Pharmacist, Cardiac Physiologist; Medical Scientist; Occupational Therapist; Physiotherapist; Podiatrist/Chiropodist; Psychologist and Speech & Language Therapist to the Critical Skills Occupations List.
This means these jobs are now eligible for a Critical Skills Employment Permit which will allow for the recruitment of these medical and therapy professionals from outside of the European Union.
