Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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According to the Central Statistics Office’s latest Population and Migration Estimates, published on 27 August 2024, the population in Ireland rose by 98,700 people in the 12 months to the end of April 2024, which was the largest 12-month increase since 2008. Over 69,000 people departed the State in the 12 months to April 2024. Of those emigrants, 34,700 were Irish citizens, 10,600 other EU citizens, 3,000 UK citizens, and 21,500 other citizens including Ukrainians. There were 149,200 immigrants which was a 17-year high. Of those immigrants, 30,000 were returning Irish citizens, 27,000 were other EU citizens, and 5,400 were UK citizens. The remaining 86,800 immigrants were citizens of other countries.

It is essential that Irish enterprise has access to high quality, adaptable and flexible talent. In order to meet this demand, my Department and its enterprise agencies work closely with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, as well as the wider education and training system, with a view to building and retaining a highly skilled indigenous workforce to serve the needs of the economy.

My Department and its enterprise agencies actively participate in Ireland’s responsive National Skills Architecture, which aims to ensure that education and training provision is optimally aligned with identified skills needs across the enterprise base. This architecture is overseen by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

The Department of Foreign Affairs leads on the implementation of Global Ireland – Ireland’s Diaspora Strategy 2020-2025, which was launched in late 2020. Global Ireland sets out a number of actions to strengthen our connections with diaspora communities and to harness the contribution from the diaspora to support our economy, including through promoting and facilitating the return of Irish emigrants.

The strategy recognises how returning emigrants bring with them skills and knowledge gained abroad that can help develop both the national and local economies. To support this, the Government also recognises the need to minimise the challenges faced by individuals and families returning to Ireland. The strategy commits to a number of actions to support the return of members of the diaspora.

These include monitoring barriers to return and adopting measures to remove them where possible; the negotiation of reciprocal agreements with countries that are home to significant Irish diaspora communities, such as double taxation and social security agreements; improvement of the provision of information on returning to Ireland and providing information for Irish citizens living overseas, including the dissemination of information on skills needs; and the expansion of mutual recognition and the portability of academic or professional qualifications earned overseas.

Ireland operates a managed employment permits system maximising the benefits of economic migration while minimising disruption to Ireland’s labour market and ensures the domestic labour force is afforded opportunities for employment in the State before an employment permit can be granted. Employment permit policy is part of the response to addressing skills deficits which exist and are likely to continue into the medium term, but it is not intended over the longer term to act as a substitute for meeting the challenge of up-skilling the State’s resident workforce, with an emphasis on the process of lifelong learning, and on maximising the potential of EEA nationals to fill our skills deficits.

Any expansion of the occupations eligible for an employment permit is predicated on an evidence-based submission that indicates efforts to upskill and recruit within Ireland and the EEA, the extent of the shortage within the labour market, and a demonstrated need for additional workforce for the sustainability of the economic activity in question. Expansions of the employment permit system are often implemented under quota, capping the number of permits that can be issued.

Conditions are often attached to the issuance of employment permits to ensure that the permit system does not undermine domestic retention and recruitment rates. Minimum salaries for employment permits are intended, in part, to ensure the permit system has a neutral effect on earnings in the state. Employers must demonstrate that at least half of their staff are from the European Economic Area before a permit can be issued. For General Employment Permits, the employer must advertise the role before applying for a permit to ensure there are no suitable applicants already in the labour market. The Employment Permits Act 2024 has new measures to support the development of the domestic workforce. Employers can be required to upskill the workforce already in place in order to access employment permits for a role. Similarly, they may be required to employ new trainees or apprentices.

In our current tight labour market, Ireland is embracing the opportunities inherent in an outward-looking economic migration policy to support enterprise and demand for skills in critically important sectors with the recruitment of talent from across the globe. Access to a highly mobile and skilled non-EEA workforce can serve only to generate economic growth and prosperity.