According to information released by the Irish government, authorities there issued 18,367 job licences in total during the first seven months of this year. Furthermore, according to the data from the same source, out of this total, 967 permits were rejected and 403 were withdrawn. According to figures provided by the Irish government, people from the following nations benefited most from the work permits issued by Dublin authorities.

• India- 6,868
• Philippines- 1,535
• Brazil- 1,608
• Pakistan- 934

As for the number of permits by county, a total of 18,367 were issued, while 967 were refused and 403 were withdrawn. The largest number of permits by county was issued to:

• Dublin- 8,770
• Cork- 1,534
• Kildare-1,138

The government of Ireland revealed that the total number of permits issued by the sector for a period from January until July this year is 18,367, while the permits were distributed across different activities as follows:

• Health and Social Work Activities- 6,192
• Information and Communication Activities- 2,769
• Accommodation and food Services Activity- 1,503
• Financial and Insurance Activities- 1,336
• Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing- 1,101

In order to further help the country’s economy, authorities in Ireland are continuously attempting to attract a larger number of foreign workers and thus fill in labour shortage gaps. In addition, previously, the government of Ireland announced that it made some changes to the terms and conditions of the Atypical Working Scheme, which is a short-term contract dedicated to all non-EEA countries’ nationals who plan to travel to Ireland for work purposes. Besides, the program allows nationals from non-EEA countries, also taking into account locum doctors or people on short-term contracts to work legally in Ireland. Based on the new changes introduced by the Department of Justice, from January 1 this year, the salary threshold for this program was amended from the National Minimum Wage in order to align with the salary requirement for General Employment Permit. The decision means that all employers attempting to apply in order to assign workers through this program will have to ensure that the minimum salary surpasses €30,000 Authorities in Ireland also announced that, following the new changes that became effective last year, permission under the Atypical Working Scheme would be issued for 90 days, which means that the waiting time was also reduced. In addition, it was clarified that the 90-day period issued under this scheme could also be used to travel into and out of Ireland for a maximum of 90 days over a six-month period.