Ireland’s 2024 General Election Part 3: A New Government Elected

As outlined in our previous blogs in this series, “Ireland’s 2024 General Election Part 1: Understanding Business Immigration Priorities from Irish NGOs” and “Ireland’s 2024 General Election Part 2: What Business Immigration Policies Can Be Expected from Ireland’s Next Government?”, both political parties and those outside of the political sphere made their immigration priorities known in advance of the general election on 29 November last year.

From that election, as expected, Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and Fine Gael emerged as the largest parties. Last week, government formation talks concluded between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael with an agreement to form a new government. This is a continuation of the existing government arrangement in Ireland. However, instead of one of the smaller parties, this new government will be supported by a group of independent TDs (members of Irish parliament), some of whom will be given ministerial posts.

Following weeks of negotiations, the programme for government has now been released, detailing the aims and policies the new government intends to implement during its term. This document outlines the government's policy plans for its intended five-year term and discusses the changes the government wishes to bring in relation to many issues, including immigration.   

While it has been analysed by some political commentators to be a less detailed programme for government than those after previous elections, it still contains information on how the new government’s policy agenda may be implemented in the area of business immigration and effectively represents a merger of the proposals that were contained in Fianna Fáil's and Fine Gael’s party manifestoes.

Key Focus Points

A focus on education as a pathway to immigration permission

The incoming government has outlined a commitment to ensure the workforce meets the needs of the economy and has identified the importance of the education system in that regard. There is an aim to link international students, particularly in STEM fields who are on Stamp 2 IRP cards, to a smoother transition to permanent residency (although Ireland does not actually have a system of permanent residency – it is assumed that this term might be interpreted differently when implemented).

The intention is that this would help retain talent already trained in Ireland. While this is intended to give more options to employers to recruit talent from Ireland, employment permits will still be required once a student/graduate permission expires.

This is an important point as the lower minimum annual remuneration threshold for recent non-EEA college graduates to qualify for an employment permit was abolished in January 2024, and the government has not committed to restoring it. This now aligns the required salary for new graduates with that of potentially experienced hires, which appears to be inconsistent with what many employers typically offer as part of their graduate programmes. It remains to be seen whether this higher salary requirement will affect employers' ability to secure employment permits for recent college graduates.

Changes to the employment permit system

The Programme for Government has committed to ‘explore’ the expansion of eligible roles for employment permits. While not a firm commitment to expand the system, it does reflect Fianna Fáil’s manifesto pledge to expand eligibility to sectors like retail, hospitality, care and construction, and the Fine Gael commitment to prioritise a skill-based system. The programme specifically calls out residential construction workers as an area to be prioritized – a key promise in the context of Ireland’s ongoing acute housing shortage along with the agri-food sector, reflecting a Fianna Fáil manifesto promise.

An additional Fine Gael promise that has made it into the programme is a plan to introduce expedited “visa” options for high-demand sectors. However, how this will differ from or interact with the existing Trusted Partner Initiative (TPI) or schemes, like the Business Express Programme operated by the Irish embassy in India, is not outlined. Any streamlining, however, is to be welcomed.

On a similar theme of efficiency, the programme continues the last government’s commitment to merge the employment permit and entry visa application processes into a single procedure, coupled with the continued development of new IT systems. Although not mentioned in the programme, this would bring Ireland to a place where it could feasibly opt in to the EU Single Permit Directive. This is a key area of both policy and practicality that employers must stay in engaged with over the coming years as it will represent a significant departure from the current landscape and present new challenges as well as increased efficiencies.

The programme notes that the government will explore additional ways to facilitate employment permit holders transition between jobs. This is notable, as the recently enacted Employment Permits Act 2024 already introduced a new procedure for changing employers. While the implementation of this procedure has faced challenges—particularly with processing times—it has been widely welcomed.

However, given that the current legislative framework allows for job changes after nine months with an employer, it is unclear what further improvements could be made to balance enhancing the employee experience with ensuring businesses can see a return on their investment in the immigration process.

Broader plans around the reconfiguration of government agencies

At a high level, it appears that most general immigration functions outside the Employment Permits system (including accommodation of those in the international protection process) will be consolidated in an expanded Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration and that the Fianna Fáil commitment to create a new and separate Department of Domestic Affairs to deal with immigration will not be implemented. This is notable as an expanded department here will have a notably wide-ranging remit for all immigration matters except employment permits and workplace compliance as noted above.

Renewed focus on immigration compliance and enforcement

There is also a commitment to greater investment and resources for this Department which may enable them to hire more staff, hopefully increasing processing times, enable more innovation in the current system, and cope with the increased workload expected as a result of these changes.

Also interestingly, despite a drive towards civilianisation in the last few years, the programme also contains a commitment to training more police as Immigration Officers. This is notable as immigration registration functions were removed from police nationally earlier this month and transferred to civilian responsibility. This reflects a renewed focus on immigration compliance and enforcement. It is expected that enforcement actions such as inspections, document checks and deportations will increase. Although responsibility for employment permits and workplace compliance will remain with the slightly re-named Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, it is expected that this shift towards enforcement will make immigration compliance a key issue for employers across the board.

While the Programme for Government focuses more on areas that will be examined or explored, some key areas, such as expansion of eligibility for employment permits, the situation of student and graduates and compliance, have emerged as clear themes.

Accordingly, employers and employees should remain focused on changes as they are implemented over the course of the coming government’s term. Fragomen will keep apprised of these developments.

Need to Know More?

For questions related to business immigration and the Irish general election, please contact Director Stephen McCrea at [email protected]. 

This blog was published on 23 January 2025, and due to the circumstances, there are frequent changes. To keep up to date with all the latest updates on global immigration, please subscribe to our alerts and follow us on LinkedIn, X, Facebook and Instagram.