Heather Humphreys TD, Minister for Business Enterprise and Innovation today published the General Scheme of the Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019.
A Review of Economic Migration Policy conducted at the Minister’s request last year indicated that while the current employment permits vacancy led system provides a robust basis for the management of economic migration, the current legislation imposes considerable inflexibilities on the operation of the system.
Among its recommendations, the Review proposes that changes be made to the Employment Permit Acts to make the system more agile and easier to modify to meet changing economic circumstances and to keep pace with technological and process changes as they arise.
Publishing the General Scheme of the Bill, Minister Humphreys said:
The proposed legislation will increase the agility and responsiveness of Ireland’s economic migration system to meet skills and labour needs, while continuing to safeguard the labour market and support the employment rights of permit holders. I want to modernise the system and ensure that it is capable of adapting to changes in the future as well as fluctuations in demand across the economic cycle.
An entirely new Bill is proposed as any further amendment to the Employment Permit Acts 2003-2014 would significantly increase the complexity of the current legislative framework. The Minister said
The consolidation of the existing legislation in this new Bill will enhance the statute’s accessibility and improve the transparency of our regulatory process. It will incorporate the recommendations of last year’s Review while retaining the core focus of a vacancy led employment permits system focussed on meeting the skills and labour needs in the State.
The Minister continued
Among other things, I am proposing to introduce a seasonal employment permit. Ireland is outlier in not having this permit type and I want to better cater for short stay and recurrent employment in sectors like horticulture, farming and tourism”. She added: “In addition, I am providing for an extensive revision of the Labour Market Needs Test. This is a requirement whereby employers need to firstly advertise vacancies within Ireland and across the EEA. The overhaul will make it more relevant, efficient, and modernised to reflect current advertising practices. It will also ensure that the test is more targeted and effective in reaching Irish and European jobseekers in the first instance.
The Minister also intends to introduce a Special Circumstances Employment Permit. This will cater to a number of instances including bilateral reciprocal agreements with other States. It could be used, for example, to address a need for a very unusual but critically important skillset for which no formal training is available in Ireland.
As well as addressing recommendations from the Review, the General Scheme of the Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019 will strengthen Ireland’s economic migration system in terms of operational issues. These include:
- Streamlining the processes for Trusted Partner and renewal applications.
- Improve the agility of the system by moving operational processes to Regulation for easier modification as circumstances require.
- Allow for the refund of fees where the employment permit cannot be taken up in prescribed circumstances.
- Simplifying the definition of remuneration and requirements around it as the current level of complexity has created difficulty for users of the employment permits system.
The Minister will be consulting widely with stakeholders on the proposals prior to the finalisation of the drafting process. The Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation will now engage in Pre-Legislative Scrutiny and will work with the Office of the Attorney General in preparing the legislation.