Vol. 567 No. 1
151 Mr. Cuffe asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if she is considering changing the law to give foreign workers the right to apply for work permits in a particular sector themselves, instead of the current system whereby employers apply for work permits for an employee. [12881/03]
At present the work permit system grants the permit to an employer to recruit a specific employee to fill a specific vacancy, where the employer has been unable to find a suitable employee within Ireland or the wider European Economic Area. This arrangement does have the safeguard that the non-EEA employee in question is coming to fill a specific vacancy, an important factor when most of the personnel in question are at the lower end of the skills spectrum.
Work permit personnel may in certain circumstances change jobs and in such circumstances a new work permit is issued to an eligible employer. This flexibility is possible and warranted by the relatively high number of vacancies arising in recent years.
If we were to move to a situation where a work permit was given to the individual employee, we would in effect be giving on authorisation to come to Ireland in search of an employer. Such a system would give rise to a number of serious policy questions and would raise very significant resource issues. Any informed decision to move to a new system should take these into account.
Any proposal to issue employment permits directly to employees raises questions such as: To whom would permits be issued?; in respect of what skills?; how many per year?; would we give quotas to other countries, if requested, and if so, to which countries?; for how long might a person seek a job?; what would be done if a person did not find a job within the period allowed?; would families of the work permit holder be permitted to travel immediately and, if so, who would be responsible for their substance in Ireland?
In terms of resources, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform has had to put in place very significant resources to give detailed consideration to applications from 10,000-12,000 asylum seekers per year. Given the likely level of demand from aspiring employees, the question arises as to whether the State would be prepared to devote an equivalent amount of resources to detailed assessment of employment permit applications from a similar or even greater level of applicants.
