11th April 2025
The Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Peter Burke, has signed regulations making changes to the employment permits system to address skills shortages in Ireland’s transport sector. The quota for car mechanics will increase by 200, the quota for HGV and Bus mechanics by 200, and the quota for vehicle body builders and repairers has increased by 50. The changes came into effect on Monday, 7 April.
Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Peter Burke said:
“I am pleased to announce that I have increased quotas for Car mechanics and HGV/Bus mechanics by 200 employment permits each and Vehicle body builders and repairers by 50 permits. Car mechanics play a vital role in ensuring that Ireland’s private car fleet is safe for all road users. HGV/Bus mechanics and Vehicle body builders and repairers are both necessary to support the extension of our public transport services including the BusConnects program, which aims to provide a significant expansion of routes and increased 24-hour operations for public transport. The planned transition to alternative power vehicles will also require access to skilled mechanics. Ensuring that there is a sufficient workforce to maintain these new vehicles will play a vital role in the delivery of this program.”
Minister of State for Small Businesses and Retail, Alan Dillon said:
“The increase to these quotas will help us to secure additional skilled workers to help deliver our ambitious public transport goals, as well as improving the roadworthiness of the private car fleet. This measure will help to ensure the safety and reliability of both public transport and the private car fleet and help to ensure that we meet our public transport goals.”
Notes for editor
The Employment Permits System
Ireland’s policy is to promote the sourcing of labour and skills needs from within the workforce of Ireland, the European Union and other European Economic Area (EEA) states. Policy in relation to applications for employment permits remains focused on facilitating the recruitment from outside the EEA of skilled and highly skilled personnel, where the requisite skills cannot be met by normal recruitment or by training. Employment permit policy is part of the response to addressing skills deficits which exist and are likely to continue into the medium term, but it is not intended over the longer term to act as a substitute for meeting the challenge of up-skilling the State’s resident workforce, with an emphasis on the process of lifelong learning, and on maximising the potential of EEA nationals to fill our skills deficits.
The Occupations Lists
For the purposes of the employment permits system, occupations fall into three categories:
- Occupations listed on the Critical Skills Occupations List are highly skilled professional roles that are in high demand and are not always available in the resident labour force. Occupations on this list are eligible for a Critical Skills Employment Permit (CSEP) and include roles such as medicine, ICT, sciences, finance, and business.
- Occupations listed on the Ineligible Occupations List (IOL) are those with evidence suggesting there are sufficient Irish/EEA workers to fill such vacancies. Employment permits are not granted for these occupations. Some roles are removed from the IOL subject to quota, in order to sustainably integrate a new source of workers into the labour market and to test the labour market needs.
- Every other job in the labour market, where an employer cannot find a worker, is eligible for an employment permit. For these occupations, the employer is required to undertake a Labour Market Needs Test and if no-one suitable applies for the job, the employer is free to apply for an employment permit. Occupations such as these may be skills of a more general nature and are eligible for a General Employment Permit (GEP).
ENDS
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