Permit crunch for foreign workers as dole numbers soar
Government looking at closing door to certain immigrants
Sunday February 08 2009
THE Government is reviewing work permits in a move which could bring the shutters down on immigrants from certain countries moving to Ireland.
With unemployment now at a 13-year high, the review is an early indication that the Government is now putting on its boxing gloves to fight for Irish jobs.
The number of people on the dole hit a record high of 327,860 last month, and that number could hit at least 400,000 by the end of the year. Last week, telecoms giant Ericsson joined the growing list of companies laying off staff in Ireland -- about 300 staff in Ericsson's Clonskeagh offices are set to lose their jobs.
When asked by the Sunday Independent last week if there were plans to tighten up the rules for work permits, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment said certain parts of the employment permit schemes "are currently being examined".
The review is unlikely to affect those from Switzerland and the European Economic Area (EEA) -- which includes the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway -- as in most cases, only immigrants outside these countries need a work permit in order to work in Ireland.
A Department spokesman said there could be some changes to "administrative arrangements" for work permits after the review, and that these changes would affect new applicants. The spokesman could not give any details of the nature of such changes as he said the review was at an early stage and no changes had yet been agreed.
Ireland could possibly follow in the footsteps of Britain, which has brought in a raft of immigration restrictions over the last year.
These include a requirement on British employers to prove they cannot find skilled workers from the EEA before looking elsewhere for immigrants. In addition, British bosses are not able to fill posts before advertising first in the country.
"Since 2004, Irish policy has been, where possible, to have our general labour and skills needs met from within the workforce of the European Union," said a Department spokesman.
Applicants for Irish work permits do not currently have to prove that they can speak English or Irish. However, there is a proposal to change immigration law so that immigrants from outside the EEA who plan to apply for long-term residency in Ireland have "a reasonable competence for communicating in the Irish or English language".
"The introduction of an English language competency as a criterion for getting an employment permit could pose difficulties," said a spokesman for the department yesterday.
About 2,000 foreign nationals a week are coming to Ireland in search of jobs, according to the latest government figures, and almost one in five of those on the dole are non-Irish nationals. Last month, about 730 work permits were granted to applicants.
Separately, the growing number of companies going bust in Ireland is eating more and more into the State coffers -- at a time when the Government is struggling to save €2bn.
The Government is now paying €193.5m to cover the cost of the redundancy payments scheme -- a scheme originally set up to ensure that employees will still get redundancy pay if their employer has gone bust and has no money left to pay redundancy.
The €193.5m bill is almost 10 times more than it paid in 2001, when the redundancy payments scheme cost the Government €27.4m.
- Louise McBride
