Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 June 2022
171. Deputy Alan Farrell asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if the critical skills list will be updated in 2022 to include occupational therapists and speech and language therapists; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29240/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra172. Deputy Alan Farrell asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the current turnaround time for work permits; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29241/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 171 and 172 together.
My Department experienced a significant increase in applications for employment permits in the past year, impacting on processing times. From the start of January to the end of December 2021, some 27,666 applications were received, representing a 69% increase over the same period in 2020 (16,293) and a 47% increase on 2019 (18,811), which itself represented an 11 year high in applications. 16,275 employment permits were issued in 2021, and a total of 17,968 applications processed, which represents a significant volume of activity.
The increased demand was also driven by the extension of categories of employment permits following the Review of the Occupational Lists in October 2021.
From the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic all employment permit applications for medical personnel have been expedited in order to assist the State to respond to the threat of Covid-19.
My Department and I recognise the impact delays in the processing times for employment permits has for businesses and their workers. An internal plan of action has been implemented which has increased resources and implemented more efficient methods of processing applications in the permits system. The processing team has trebled in size and daily output has more than tripled compared to 2021 levels.
Since the implementation of this plan, the Employment Permits Unit has made positive progress by reducing the number of applications awaiting processing from about 11,000 in January 2022 to approximately 5,800 today, despite further strong growth in demand in 2022. As new staff were trained on Critical Skills and Intra Company Transfer Employment Permits, processing times for those permits have fallen from 21 weeks to 5 weeks.
The Employment Permits Unit has recently completed processing 3,000 additional General Employment Permits applications made available to the meat and horticultural sectors, following the last review of the Occupational Lists, in addition to normal processing workload.
Within the last month processing times for General Employment Permit applications for Trusted Partners fell from 22 weeks to 14 weeks, while applications from Standard applicants fell from 22 weeks to 15 weeks. These should continue to fall, with processing times considerably reduced by the end of Quarter 2.
