Micheál Martin TD, Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment publishes the Employment Permits Bill 2005

Migrant Worker Protections

The Bill contains a number of new important protections for migrant employees, principal of which will be the granting of the work permit to the employee. However, the practice of the employer applying for the permit will continue.

The Bill also provides that the employment permit will contain a statement of the rights and entitlements of the employee, including that the employee may change employment through the application for another work permit by a new employer. These new arrangements will offer greater protection and mobility to the employee.

In addition, the Bill prohibits employers from deducting expenses associated with recruitment from the employee's remuneration and from retention of personal documents belonging to the employee. There will be significant penalties for breaches of the legislation, comprising fines to a maximum of €50,000 or terms of imprisonment not exceeding 5 years.

Green- cards & Employment Permits

In relation to Green-cards, the legislation will empower the Minister to formulate a framework within which an active economic migration policy can be implemented. In particular, the Bill allows the Minister to introduce a "green-card" type system for highly skilled migrant workers. The Bill specifically gives the Minister the power to make regulations to grant permission for non-European Economic Area (EU-25 plus Norway, Iceland, Lichtenstein and Switzerland) nationals with specified skills to reside and work here for a defined period of time..

In relation to Work Permits the legislation will enable the Minister, every two years, to set the maximum number of employment permits to be issued both in total and by sector, to identify the skills and qualifications required for the grant of a permit, and to identify the categories of employment that may or may not be the subject of granting employment permits.

Forfás and the Expert Group for Future Skills Needs are currently engaged in research and consultations on the detailed issues entailed in the implementation of this policy, including the types of skills for which permits should be granted. This work will form the basis for a policy paper to be published by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in the Autumn. On foot of this paper new "green-card" type employment permit arrangements will be implemented.

The aim is that Ireland will have a flexible and responsive employment permit system, which will ensure that the economy's skills and labour needs can be addressed in a pragmatic and speedy manner. We already have 137,000 non-nationals working in Ireland, which represents 7 per cent of our labour force. However, we will need to attract even more highly skilled workers in order to ensure that Ireland's economic advance is not hindered.

Concluding Minister Martin said "The success of Ireland's economy in recent years has been underpinned by the attraction to Ireland of significant numbers of non-EEA workers. In order to sustain this economic success, we must ensure that labour and skill shortages in the economy are met. The Employment Permits Bill 2005 aims to achieve this end, by placing the policy and administration of Ireland's economic migration policy on a legislative basis, providing for a more effective system of migration, and by providing greater protection for migrant workers."

The Employment Permits Bill 2005 can be downloaded from: http://www.djei.ie/publications/employment/2005/employmentpermitsbill.pdf

ENDS

ETE 1384

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