Senator John McGahon- speech from 24 Jan 2023

Thank you very much. And yeah, it's great to have Minister Richmond in the House today. He would have obviously served with Senator Boyhan, Senators McDougall, Senator Conway and Senator Burke and indeed yourself, Cahirlock. So it's great to see that there's a pathway for all of us from this House to very high office. However, perhaps we should follow more in the spirit of Senator Hackett, who is appointed directly from here to Cabinet. Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent. First of all, it is great to have Minister Richmond here. And just before I begin, I'd like to pay tribute to his predecessor, Minister English, who served this country. with great distinction over a number of years in various departments and ministries. And I would like just to pay tribute to all the work that Minister English put in. Minister Richmond, the reason I'm coming today to talk about permits, and you will know yourself that this has been somewhat of a political issue in the last couple of years, where it's been very difficult to get very key workers into critical sectors of the Irish economy because of the length of time that it's taken to process work applications. I know that a lot of work has been done in the last couple of months to try and streamline that. And I welcome that, and I think that's really good. I think that's excellent. But really why I'm bringing this commencement debate to the House and directly to you today, Minister, is because I would like to know what your plans are as a new minister in this department to try and streamline it, to try and make it more efficient, to make sure that people who want to come to this country, to work in this country, to pay a part in our economy and our society, have the ability to have the ability to do that as quickly as possible, and that they're not being left in limbo because of red tape, because of red tape, because of bureaucracy. And to bring it into a more localised level, in my own county of Dundalk and county of the wider, like there's so many examples of whether it's foreign multinational companies, of which we have a large substantial, who are trying to bring workers in, and they're not able to do it because of the restrictive and long drawn out nature. When I looked at Amazon, for example, Amazon were responsible for 3.5% of all of the work permit applications in 2022, and that worked out at roughly 1,394 people. That was 1,394 people who came to this country to work for just one organisation through that. Equally, when we look at agriculture, and I've discussed this quite a lot with people who are involved in the agricultural community in County Lowth, it has become quite difficult to try and source staff from local economies. And that's why you have people who are coming into Ireland that will play such a vital role in our agricultural process as well. And when you move it into a wider aspect, when you look at, say, home carers, medical practitioners, the concept is that, again, we want to try and keep people in their homes for as long as possible. And home care assistants play a vital role in that as well. And it's about making sure that we have people who want to come to this country are able to do so in a timely and efficient manner. So I am somewhat concerned about the speeds of processing applications, particularly for local economies, particularly for border economies like County Lowth. It's very, very important. So, as I've said, to, I suppose, bring this to a conclusion, what I am bringing this here today is because I want to hear directly from you, Minister, what your plans are, how we're going to streamline it. I acknowledge a lot of work has happened in previous months to try and speed it up, but there's a lot more to do. And finally, where we have a concept that we have full employment in this country, and we have a case now we have people from right across the world who want to come to Ireland because we are an economic success story. We absolutely are. And we have people who are coming here who want to work here, who want to contribute to Irish society, who want to contribute to the Irish economy, and I think we should make that as easily as possible for people who want to come and work here. And I'd be very keen to hear your views on the same. Thank you very much, Senator McGahan. And just before Minister Richmond replies, I'd like to be very much associated with the words of congratulations to Minister Richmond. We all knew his capabilities and abilities, and he served in this House and has chaired the Brexit Committee. And I think his portfolio is very suitable to his skill set, and we wish him well. So, now Minister Richmond. I go and I get Lasky Heerlich, and I really hope I receive that sort of welcome every time I come back to the House going forward, be it for commencement matters or legislative debates. And it's certainly an aspiration of mine in this new role to spend a considerable amount of time engaging with senators on key issues, particularly one of which is the area of work permits that falls within my remit in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. And I'm extremely grateful to Senator McGahan for raising this issue here today, but also for his clear illustration of how it is impacting the people on the ground in Louth that he services every day as a senator, and, of course, previously as a county councillor. As the senator will be aware, the employment permit system is not just a really important part of our workforce, but it's also crucial for so many businesses looking to expand and hire more staff. One of the great difficulties, but also one of the great opportunities at the moment is that we are at effect of full employment in our economy, so businesses, unfortunately, are faced with a position where they can't find an Irish or EEA national available to undertake certain roles. These shortages are genuine, and so the work permit system seeks to fill this gap and help these businesses hire and find the necessary talent they require. Any opportunity for businesses to expand, contribute to our economy and employ more staff is something that simply has to be welcomed across the houses. And I know many of the senators here will have heard from businesses who have experienced delays in accessing their work permits, just like the employers in Senator McGahan's constituency. We previously found ourselves in a position where large demands for permits led to long delays. In 2021, alone, Laskar Heerla, 27,666 applications were received. This was a 69% increase from 2020 and a 47% increase from 2019, which, of course, was a non-COVID year. This was a high that hadn't been seen in over a decade. These delays did have an impact on the processing times, but I'm glad to say that the processing times have been significantly reduced. The current wait and processing time for a permit has been reduced from 21 weeks at the start of 2022 to now one week to two weeks at a maximum. This is a really significant change that has come through dedicated work, most importantly by my predecessor in this role, Minister Damien English, which the Senator referred to, but also a vast array of officials in the Department of Enterprise working with key stakeholders, be it in the trade union movement, in the employer sectors and with industry alike. This was done at the start of 2022. An action plan was introduced to reduce the backlog. Resources were increased and more efficient methods of processing employment permit applications were applied. The processing time, Senator, was trebled in size and daily output more than tripled compared to 2021 levels. Work has also been underway on a sectoral level regarding access to permit. From November 2021, my Department introduced a number of key operational improvements in the way in which doctors can access the employment permit system. These changes mean that doctors in public health settings no longer need to submit further employment permit applications, but instead can simply advise my Department of their HSE location, thereby reducing the administrative burden on the Department, the HSE hospitals and on the doctors themselves. This has removed many hundreds of applications from the employment permit systems. The system is currently operating, as it is said, very well. The number of applications awaiting processing has fallen from about 11,000 in January 2022 to just under 900 as of this morning. And that comes alongside a growth in demand for applications. The progress in the processing and wait time for these permits is a significant achievement and has been warmly welcomed by businesses across the country. But I know that many businesses in Alaska Heerlich may still have issues within the system and I am always willing to engage with them, listen to their problems they may have and see what can be done to improve their experience. Senator, there is an awful lot more that needs to be done in this area. An awful lot of work has underway, but I think the level of engagement for the likes of yourself who are on the ground in your constituency on a daily basis, dealing with applicants and businesses alike will ensure that this process is continuously improved. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Senator McGowan. Thank you very much. Thank you. Minister, I actually think it's the last point there you said, which is one of the most important things, which is that in your time in this department, your door will always be open for businesses who are still struggling at some aspects of this. And I think that's really welcomed and I think that will be very prudent of you in your role because it's providing that direct line of access to businesses who are experiencing this. A couple of points that I would just point out from your response, which I thought is quite impressive. In 2021 alone, 27,000 applications and a 69% increase from 2020 and a 47% increase in 2019. Well, that just adds to credence from a lot of people here in opposition that this is some sort of a failed state. We are at full employment. We have people who are coming here to work and they're doing that because we have a society that we can be very proud of. The other point that I'd just like to note is how the start date has gone from 21 weeks down to one to two weeks. Again, that is down to a lot of the supports that were put in place and the fact, as you said, that the actual output was trebled. So I think that's really welcome from your predecessor, but I'm very keen to see the work that you're going to do in this area throughout the rest of your time in the department. I suppose it's interesting to note, Senator, the two other statistics. Last year we saw 80,000 Irish immigrants return back to Ireland. We have net inward migration in this state. So this fairy tale that some people want to say that people are fleeing Ireland, that it's a failed state, is complete nonsense. People want to come here, people want to come home and they're welcome. And of course, we all recognise and acknowledge the societal challenges for bringing people back in and the difficulties in certain policies. But when it comes to work permits, I think two areas that are extremely important to this going forward is that the department has recently appointed IT system specialists to undertake the design and implementation of a new employment permit system, which will benefit so many. But also in December, the government agreed to an establishment of an interdepartmental working group to develop an implementation plan for a single application procedure for employment permits and crucially, the immigration permissions that will accompany them. I think this is a good news story that is worth talking about and it's certainly something that I hope to work on with you and other senators much closer going forward. Go margouf, last year look. Go margouf, the harrah, Anstead.