Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2023-06-21
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Leo Varadkar (FG), Dublin West

That is a fair point and something I will follow up on because the situation in each community is different depending on the needs and the capacity of the community and the profile of the people we are bringing into that area. One thing that can help is registering Ukrainian doctors and nurses. They have come to Ireland as well. Making sure their qualifications are recognised, allowing them to work in our health service and getting around the issues of translation is being done. The other work that is being done is bringing together the work permit and visa systems in a single combined system. That is a European law that we have opted in to. I know from experience that we turn around work permits very quickly now, in two or three weeks.
Visas are a little more complicated because we have to check that people are who they say they are. Often, the delay in issuing a visa to somebody is not a delay on our side. It is a delay in the police department in the country they are coming from, because we need to check that they are who they say they are. Nobody would forgive us for issuing visas to people without due diligence.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2023-06-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:52:03+00:00
Sitting date: 2023-06-21