Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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10. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will outline, with regard to work permits for the home care sector, the number of work permit applications received since the scheme opened in January 2023; the number of work permits issued; the number of applications rejected; the number of applications currently processing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30496/24]

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Ireland operates a managed employment permits system maximising the benefits of economic migration and minimising the risk of disrupting Ireland’s labour market. The system is designed to facilitate the entry of appropriately skilled non-EEA nationals to fill skills and/or labour shortages in the State required to develop and support enterprise for the benefit of our economy.

Employment permit policy is a short and medium term measure to address skills deficits which exist and are likely to continue into the medium term, but it is not intended to act as a long term substitute for meeting the challenges of upskilling the State’s resident workforce.

Changes to the employment permits system for workers from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) to address skills shortages in Ireland’s care workers and home carer sector were announced by my Department on 16 December 2022. This followed constructive engagement between my Department and the Department of Health. The cross-departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group, which was established to examine the strategic workforce challenges in publicly and privately provided front-line carer roles in home-care and long-term residential care. The Group's report identified 16 recommendations spanning areas of recruitment, pay and conditions, barriers to employment, training and professional development and sectoral reform. To address shortages in the sector, the report recommended that the Government enable the employment of non-EU/EEA care workers in Ireland for roles in the sector.

In line with this recommendation, a quota of 1000 permits was made available for this sector in January 2023.

A total of 1,035 employment permits applications for the role of home-care worker have been received since this quota was established. Of these applications, 985 have issued, 32 have been refused, 3 were withdrawn and 15 are currently awaiting information.