The intra-company transfer permit system is designed to facilitate the transfer of senior management, key personnel or trainees of a foreign employer to its Irish branch. At present, spouses of intra-company transfer employment permit holders can move to Ireland immediately with the permit holder; however, they are not entitled to access the labour market automatically. Instead, they too must apply for a separate employment permit if offered a job that is eligible for a work permit. I am aware that there have been calls from stakeholders and from Members of the Oireachtas to make changes to these rules and I have engaged with many of my colleagues on this issue over recent weeks.

The issue of the labour market access of spouses of employment permit holders is receiving consideration and the impact of any changes is being researched at present. Officials in my Department have been in close engagement with officials in the Department of Justice on this issue as part of wider collaboration on economic migration and talent attraction.

I am aware that this is something that the Deputy himself has been very outspoken on and I always welcome his contributions in this regard. I encourage any others who have case examples where this is perhaps impeding employment in their own constituencies to come forward to the Department and submit those to either me or any of the other Ministers. Looking at barriers is key at a time of a tightened labour force where we are trying to attract the best talent to this country. The barriers are not always pay or conditions but it can be the ability to bring one's spouse or family to the country and ensure that they can have the full opportunity, and that needs to be looked at.

To the crux of the Deputy's question, there were 6,449 intra-company transfers issued between 2018 and June 2023.

The Deputy requested the details in tabular form. They will be provided in a written response, but I will give a flavour. In 2018, 918 intra-company transfer employment permits were issued, only 41 were refused and 25 applications were withdrawn. In addition, 19 intra-company transfer employment permits for trainees were issued, one was refused and two applications were withdrawn. Those kinds of numbers are consistent over the years. They go up and down, as they did during the Covid-19 pandemic, for example. Bearing in mind that it is not yet July, so far this year 873 intra-company transfer employment permits have been issued, only five have been refused and ten applications have been withdrawn and 13 intra-company transfer employment permits for training have been issued, none was refused or no applications were withdrawn. In the last full year for which we have figures, 2022, 1,876 intra-company transfer employment permits were issued, only nine were refused and 36 applications were withdrawn. Last year, the year with the highest number on record, 74 intra-company transfer employment permits for trainees were issued, none was refused and no applications were withdrawn.

I will give the Deputy the full details from 2018 to 2023 for both full permits and training permits in writing.

I thank the Minister of State for his response. The numbers are higher than I thought they might be, according to those the Minister of State has given. Will the change the Minister of State proposes, or which I hope he will propose, to allow spouses to work require primary legislation or can it be done via a statutory instrument?

Is the Minister of State aware that in recent days, Canada launched a tech talent strategy and a digital nomad strategy specifically designed to attract people of high talent to Canada? This includes the ability of spouses, dependants and partners to work at anything when they arrive. It is completely open. I have met some employers who told me that the prohibition on spouses and partners, who are often also people of talent and ability, being able to work when they get here has put high-quality people off coming here in the past. They refused to come because of that prohibition. Will the Minister of State give this urgent attention and change the rules to allow these people to also work when they arrive? He can imagine what it is like when they arrive here and are at home all day unable to work. The other available avenue is quite difficult, as the Minister of State will be aware.

A simple thing has occurred on a few occasions recently. Work permits and visas have been issued above board to an employer in respect of particular employees who may have had to move to another village or town a few miles away because of housing difficulties. Apparently the whole process has to be started again from scratch. They have to go over the whole thing from start to finish, which could take three months. It is not feasible from the point of view of either the employers or the employees and imposes hardship on them.

The Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, might want to come back on this. A proposal was approved by the Cabinet recently to try to introduce much more flexibility to that process. If someone comes to Ireland on a work permit and then looks to transfer to another company, after a certain period - there are certain thresholds and so on - they should be facilitated to do that in a much more seamless way than has been the case to date. I can send the details of that to the Deputy if it is helpful.

I will reply to Deputy Stanton directly in that regard. In relation to any changes that may arise - I do not want to pre-empt that - I believe I can do so through a statutory instrument.

On the situation in Canada, I attended a meeting of the OECD in Paris yesterday. I sat beside the Canadian minister responsible for small business and employment for two days and we discussed the matter at length. Trying to secure talent in the western world is extremely difficult for all countries. It is not only a European Union phenomenon. It is the same in North America. The US has something like 10 million jobs and only 5 million candidates for them. The same is true of Canada on a smaller scale but in the same proportions. That certainly presents a huge opportunity for Ireland.

I was taken by the fact that a number of employers I have met make the obvious case that it is a barrier to bringing employees under intra-company transfer. One serious concern is that they will transfer, but there will be a huge mental health and societal impact if spouses or partners are unable to work. They are in a country where their language is not spoken. Their partners have come to do a job with a big salary and work long hours. Needless to say, after six months they just want to go home. The fact that they cannot access the workforce or cannot fundamentally be part of society is a major drain that is also a major economic drain. I will definitely take the points under advisement.

As the Minister of State acknowledged, I have been raising this issue for some time. Is he in a position to put some kind of timescale on when he will make a decision and address the issue he has just outlined, whereby not being able to work because your partner or spouse has come here under intra-company transfer is detrimental to a partner, spouse or family member? In many instances, people refuse to come here if that is the case. Will the Minister of State give a commitment to address this soon? I have been raising the issue for some time and perhaps it is time we made a decision one way or another.

The priority of the section at the moment is the overall review of the critical skills list, which has just started. I have asked officials to ensure that the moment it finishes, by the end of August, we will be able to work on this. I would like to be able to come back to the Deputy in the first week after Dáil recess with a definitive answer one way or another.