The Irish government has now approved the Ireland Employment Permits Act 2024; this contains some new changes in the employment permit scheme.
Key Points:
This new act was passed on the 25th of June with aims to amend and update the law touching on the employment permit system in the Department of Enterprise, Trade, and Employment.
Several provisions are included in the act to establish a new employment permit for seasonal workers and their dependents, amend the labor market testing regime, make changes to employer rules, and address other issues.
Seasonal employment permit: A new seasonal employment permit category will be created to capture non-European Economic
Area nationals’ seasonally recurrent employment that will happen for a certain period in any given year. A trial will occur in 2025 and will only work for certain employers under certain terms and conditions.
Revision of labor market testing: Employers will only be obliged to advertise a position in two media outlets, one of which is EURES (Jobs . Ireland).
Changes in employer: General or critical skills employment permit holders will be permitted to apply to change their employer after nine months have passed.
Background:
Ireland is still in the process of making many changes to the employment-based immigration scheme to update its structures and slightly liberalize some of its unfavorable policies. The government recently amended the conditions for the Stamp 4 permissions, introducing less stringent eligibility criteria, and also stated that spouses and partners of some employment permit holders will now receive employment rights without the need to obtain a new permit. To sum up, the contemporary Irish authorities are now fighting the largest ever battle for extending the employment permits system; at the same time, the Irish government has recently declared the most recent changes to some of the core immigration programs affecting the non-EU/EEA citizens that are going to enable them find employment in the Republic of Ireland with ease..
BAL Analysis:
The Irish government is particularly interested in addressing aspects of the rights of workers and business entities. When in place, the new act should help employers easily source talent within the market. In addition, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade, and Employment will need to sign a commencement order for the act, and an implementation time scale has yet to be declared. Bal will keep monitoring the changes in immigration laws and will report the progress as soon as there is a change.
