Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has confirmed that she has secured Government approval to introduce a single permit to both work and live in Ireland.
Currently, to work in Ireland, a person from a country outside the European Economic Area has to first make an application for an employment permit, and then make a second application for a visa, if from a visa-required country, and then finally apply for an immigration permission following their arrival.
However, this multi-step process is now being reviewed following what the minister describes as a “detailed engagement by an interdepartmental group to explore the feasibility” a single permit system.
Minister McEntee says that once the single permit is implemented, “Ireland would also then be able to opt-in to the EU Single Permit Directive to ensure Ireland is not at a competitive disadvantage when attracting skills, experience and talent to the economy.”
The Single Permit Directive, also gives many non-EU nationals working in the EU the right to be treated equally to EU nationals in many respects, including: working conditions, social welfare, the recognition of qualifications and tax benefits.
It has also been confirmed that work to facilitate the adoption of the single permit will be completed over the course of the next three years, while n the short term “a number of actions will be taken to streamline the existing process, including the introduction of a single payment mechanism.
The minister said her Department is also making significant investments in technology to fully digitise the immigration service and has recently introduced measures “to enable the spouses and partners of employment permit holders to themselves take up employment without a separate authorisation.”
All of these initiatives, she says, “are designed to ensure the long-term sustainability of our economy and to support and recognise the vitally important contribution made by migrants to so many areas of our economy and society.”