Mattie McGrath blasts bureaucratic delays in work permits

I would ask the Minister for Trade and Employment, what steps are you taking, Minister, to deal with the huge delays and the whole bureaucratic system that companies in Ireland are facing to try and get a work premise for foreign applicants, especially the Irish Shortholds Association and many other parts of industries as well, agriculture is one of them, and to ask you, Minister, if you have met with Di, RHA and the Royal Holiday Association to discuss these issues, but the ongoing delay is crippling the economy. Thank you, Deputy. Minister. Yes, thanks, Deputy, for your question. My department is committed to delivering an effective and responsive employment permit system which supports businesses and ensures that we are well positioned to maximise the benefits of economic migration. The system is designed to facilitate the entry of appropriate skilled non-EEA nationals to fill skills and our labour shortage required to develop and support enterprise for the benefit of our economy. The department has responded to labour shortages reported by the haulage sector by making the role of HGV drivers eligible for the general employment permit without restrictions. In April 2025, the quota for HGV bus mechanics was also extended by 200 permits in direct response to identified labour shortages. The role of coach and bus drivers is subject to a quota of 1,500 general employment permits with over 1,000 remaining available. Following a surge in demand of the employment permits across 2021 and 2022, the department implemented an action plan which increased resources and introduced more effective methods of processing permit applications. The measures have resulted in significant reductions in wait time and a vastly improved user experience. As of 16 June 2025, my department is processing general employment permits received and the critical skills permits received with approximately 2,000 applications awaiting processing. Applications for HGV drivers were temporarily placed on hold in the first half of this year due to an external delay in the licence verification process. Until recently, there was an operational agreement with which the department would verify the driving licences of HGV drivers before issuing an employment permit. However, following legal advice on this issue, the employment permit unit will no longer be verifying driving licences in the manner. Consequently, the unit has recommended processing permit applications for the role and all applications will have been on hold for now. The regulations of whom is licensed, we can read it into the record. Thank you. Minister, it wasn't too long ago you decided the House, and I wish you were in your new position, but Minister, you know this situation is a disgraceful situation facing the licence hauliers. Hard work in Irish businesses trying to operate legally, only to be choked by, as I said, a whole lot of regulatory and dysfunctional recruitment process is just unbelievable. If a holiday on Tipperary, for instance, my constituency or anywhere else wants to hire a qualified driver from inside the EU, let's say South Africa, they must wade through a nine-stage bureaucratic minefield, including five different departments. We are talking about licence exchange agreements, a mandatory 28-day labour market, visa applications, work permits, PPS numbers, resident cards, CPC modules. This process can take up to two years, with costs racking up every step of the way. At the end of it, the driver may not even be allowed to be into the country. Mr. Deputy Deputy, again, thanks for your question. We do recognise the pressures facing many of the licence haulage sectors, and I want to assure that the government is responding to many of those concerns. we have made significant progress in relation to the new employment permit online system that is delivering an effective and responsive to the to provide the maximum benefits of our economic migration system over the past three years we've increased staff resources we've also streamlined the internal processing and we've introduced as i said the new digital online system and that is very user friendly and indeed general employment permits are now being turned around in 19 business days while critical skits permits are being turned around in just 12 days and i think that is significant progress indeed since the new system has been launched over 3 700 applications have been received and over 3 100 are already been issued so the system is now operating at pre-launch levels and uh we have very much high user success i don't believe those figures are given quite frankly i don't because it's not my experience and meanwhile people who come in here illegally get all the treatment they offer housing and they get everything else as well so the message you'll give out ministers that they're penalizing those are playing by the rules there are and there are multinationals that you know you can't get away with stuff as well so only small businesses who and it's not only the holidays there's agriculture and there's hoteliers and everything else trying to get people in pay the money go through the whole system it's so a bureaucratic and it's you're telling me 19 days and and that's just not simply not happening that's not the case in temporary certainly are people aren't telling me lies but minister we need to streamline this process and where people want to have carrying on the business leading employees from abroad where they're qualified and they meet all the criteria there must be a streamlined process that they can get this get these people in they make a huge investment after all and then the driver and the operator however mightn't come at all or might leave after a short time so it's a very risky business for the employers the players need these people so minister deputy these are the figures these are the accurate figures that are being presented by the department and we have made significant strides i'm not sure i'm not aware of the cases that you're raising but certainly if you want to if you want to uh send me a note in relation to them i'd be happy to take them up um as i said we have a more modern uh integrated system now we are working with the department of justice to try and streamline a more uh you user um single application process also for for uh for visas and indeed we have made significant progress in relation to uh labour shortages in many sectors and i know minister burke and myself our look have made uh most recently back in april additions to permits for hgv drivers and also uh vehicle repairs and indeed we will look at um the review around the employment permit occupational lists that is scheduled for summer this year i think that's an important step forward uh but overall i think we have indeed invested heavily in the permit system and that has i'm sure a huge benefit in terms of trying to find the skill shortage within certain sector sectors of our market we now move on to questions