Access to the General Employment Permit for non-EEA nationals wishing to take up employment in the role of healthcare assistant was announced in June 2021 to address skills and labour shortages in the healthcare and nursing home sector. The framework agreed following constructive engagement with the Department of Health provided a salary of at least €27,000 for the role and the requirement for the permit holder to attain a relevant qualification at least QQI Level 5 after 2 years employment in the State.
Remuneration for employment permit purposes is a labour market policy instrument in which setting minimum remuneration thresholds is a delicate balancing act. Economic migration seeks to serve the skills needs of the economy without impacting the wider labour market. Therefore, being cognisant that there are a range of remuneration levels in the sector (€24,000 - €32,000) and recognising the need to be able to recruit staff while ensuring that there is no disruption to the domestic labour market, a minimum annual remuneration threshold of €27,000 has been set for this occupation.
My Department is engaging with officials in the Department of Health with regard the healthcare assistant framework to include consideration of future minimum wage thresholds and impacts on the labour market. The review will gather data from the not-for-profit, for-profit and public sector nursing homes, and any hospitals that acquired permits for the role. It will also produce a model that will be expandable to assess the latest change of extending the employment permits system to the private home care sector in December 2022.
This review will take into account the Report of the Strategic Workforce Advisory Group led by the Department of Health, the role of which is to examine strategic workforce challenges in publicly and privately funded home support and nursing homes providers.
The conditions governing the eligibility requirements for family reunification and the granting of Stamp 1G visas for spouses and/or dependents of employment permit holders are a matter for the Minister for Justice. The Department of Justice policy requires that the sponsor demonstrate their capacity to provide for their family member(s) if they are to be granted a permission to come to Ireland. The policy sets out the rationale for applying resource requirements as part of the overall assessment of whether to approve an application for family reunification and the conditions attaching to permissions issued to family members.
I fully appreciate that it is very stressful and difficult for those who do not meet the criteria for family reunification. The Department of Justice policy, which was last amended in 2016, is currently under review.
