The government has announced changes to the employment permits system for workers from outside the European Economic Area to address shortages in the dairy, transport and home care sectors.
The changes, which come into effect immediately follow a review of workforce challenges in those sectors and collaboration between several government departments.
"I am delighted to announce further changes to the employment permit system that will help ease the recruitment challenges being experienced in the agriculture, transport and home care sectors," said minister Damien English.
The government intends for the measures to alleviate pressure being faced by dairy farmers, who have struggled to recruit workers ahead of calving season," said English.
"Our economic migration policy accommodates the arrival of non-EEA nationals to fill skills and labour gaps in the domestic economy in the short to medium term. Where shortages are clearly evidenced, the employment permit system is flexible enough to address these shortages in a timely manner.”
In Association with
The measures for home carers follow the establishment of the cross-department Strategic Workforce Advisory Group in March to examine strategic challenges in publicly and privately provided frontline carer roles in home care and long-term residential care for older people.
The group's report recommended the establishment of a quota of 1,000 employment permits for home carers, which the government has now followed through on.
Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People Mary Butler said addressing the critical shortage of care-workers in Ireland is an urgent priority for the government.
"We need to ensure that everybody with care needs has those needs met in a timely and responsive manner," she sated. "The authorisation of 1,000 employment-permits for non-EU/EEA home carers announced today, will make a significant contribution to addressing this challenge.”
A quota of 1,500 permits for non-EU bus and coach drivers has also been announced.
"Transport providers have experienced significant difficulties in recruiting bus and coach drivers in recent months, which has unfortunately impacted on service delivery across the public transport network," Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said.
Employers will be eligible to apply for the employment permits once they have run the required advertisements for 28 days. Current processing time for employment permits is between three and five business days.
(Pic: Getty Images)
