IRELAND – Additional Occupations Added to Skills-Shortage List
Ireland’s Employment Permit Act which contains the list of ineligible occupations and the shortage-occupations skills list was recently amended and these changes took effect on September 1st, 2015.
The Irish labour market has been experiencing a shortage in certain occupations that foreign nationals were previously ineligible for. Due to this shortage, foreign nationals are now eligible for several occupations that have been removed from the Ineligible List including telecommunications engineers, IT engineers, chiropractors, mobility instructors for the visually impaired and a limited amount of meat boners. However, occupations that are no longer deemed in short supply and have therefore been added to this list include dispensing opticians, betting shop managers, graphic design managers, library managers, plant hire managers, production managers, and property, housing and estate managers.
Revisions have also been made to the Highly Skilled Eligible Occupations List. Radiation therapists, orthotists and prothetists have now been included as highly-skilled occupations while healthcare practice managers and social services managers and directors have been removed from the list.
Other changes have been made to immigration processes as a result of these new regulations. Employment permit renewal applications, forms notifying dismissal by reason of redundancy and change of name, and submitting decision for review forms have all been revised. The Trusted Partner Registration forms and Trusted Partner Employment Permit application forms have remained unchanged. The validity period of a P30 in support of an employment permit application has been extended to three months of the date of the permit application instead of the previous validity period of two months. Previously, applicants seeking a renewal permit had to have a passport valid for 12 months prior to the date of the application. To facilitate the process for renewal permit applicants, passports now need to be valid for only three months.
Please note that this is general information only and not intended as advice on a specific matter. Please feel free to contact Fakhoury Global Immigration directly with questions exclusive to your situation.