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Farmers and agribusinesses looking to hire non-European workers must wait more than four months for a permit allowing them to work in Ireland because of a surge in demand.
“The Employment Permits Section of the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation has experienced a high volume of applications in recent weeks and, unfortunately, this has led to some delays,” a Department spokesperson told the Irish Farmers Journal.
The waiting time is currently 15 weeks for standard applications, up from 14 weeks last week. Employers can cut this by half to seven weeks if they register as trusted partners through a stricter initial background check, ensuring lighter paper work for each subsequent worker’s application. Trusted partner status is better suited to companies hiring large numbers of workers from outside the European Economic Area, the Department has advised.
“A number of initiatives, including the allocation of additional resources and a work re-organisation programme, have been introduced to improve processing times,” the spokesperson said.
Those waiting for permits include employers and workers applying for the 750 jobs in meat processing, 500 in horticulture and 50 in dairying opened to immigrant workers by the Department since May to address labour shortages.
Meat factories have been the most active in availing of the scheme.
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