Help Wanted: but only if you have skills

By Harry Keaney

Ireland is Deirdre O’Connor’s ancestral homeland. But when the 25-year-old New Jersey woman tried to find legal work in “the land of the hundred thousand welcomes,” she was bitterly disappointed.

O’Connor is an American whose Irish roots extend too far back to entitle her to Irish citizenship. In the eyes of Irish law, therefore, she’s a foreigner. And a foreigner, for work purposes in today’s bustling Ireland, is not someone merely from outside the island of Ireland, but someone from beyond the borders of the European Union and countries in what is called the Euro Economic Area.

So, although O’Connor holds an advanced degree in business from an Irish institution, she doesn’t possess a skill that can’t already be found in abundance in Ireland, the EU or the EEA. As a result, despite the Irishness of her surname, she was ineligible for an Irish work permit. All the while, the Celtic Tiger economy is absorbing thousands of workers from abroad, with Schmidts and Minnellis free to live, travel, and work in Ireland, permit free, whether their profession be software developer or street sweeper, and with Americans of any national ancestry who have highly coveted skills receiving a hearty “cTad mfle f_ilte” as well.

As far as work is concerned, Ireland today is now as much a part of the new Europe as Iowa is of the U.S. For all the talk of close bonds between the Emerald Isle and America, that sentimentality remains the stuff of tourist board brochures. Indeed, when it comes to business, Ireland is, well, all business. Only foreigners who possess required skills and experience will be given a work permit, and then only if there is a company that says it needs them.

Of course, that’s a situation not unlike that of most other countries in the world, including the U.S., where thousands of Irish immigrants endured years as undocumented aliens. But, thanks to a variety of U.S. visa programs, many of these Irish became legal residents and many are now even becoming U.S. citizens.

Changed times

That people, mostly from other European countries, are now flocking to Ireland to work is in itself a powerful statement of how the country has changed. It also throws into focus the country’s laws and regulations in relation to work.

While Ireland’s department of Justice sets and implements the regulations for the issuance of visas, which are granted by the department of Foreign Affairs, it’s the department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment that is the issuing agency for work permits.

As Ireland, a doorstep to lucrative European markets, began to enjoy boom times in the middle of the decade, foreign companies seeking to set up there found themselves coming face to face with Irish work laws.

“A number of companies had problems some years ago in getting work permits for non-nationals,” said New York-based John Corrigan, CEO-Americas for Enterprise Ireland, a government agency that is part of the department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Corrigan explained that at that time, there was massive unemployment in Ireland.

Times have changed, of course, although the country remains one of stark economic contradictions. Unemployment is at an historical low, but, nevertheless, a Catholic church report published last week stated that more than 20,000 people a year continue to emigrate from Ireland, many of them unskilled, and many to the U.S., where, if history is a barometer, most can expect to one day become citizens, despite their current illegal status.

“There is an acknowledgment now, because the employment situation has improved dramatically, that there is a need for a system to fast-track people with skills required for industry to develop,” Corrigan said. These skills, he added, are mainly in the areas of advanced software, biotechnology and telecommunications.

Corrigan added that the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, in Dublin, has now appointed an executive, Brian McCabe, whose sole job is to work with industry and the Department of Justice to “fast-track the entry of people who have something to offer.”

“In the last year, Ireland has changed from one of the more difficult to one of the more liberal countries to enter,” Corrigan said, adding that in the last year about 6,000 work permits were given to non-European Union nationals. “This is way in excess of countries which were far more open, such as Britain and Denmark.”

On further examination, it transpires that it’s not only people within the European Union area who have freedom to move and work in each other’s countries, but also those from the EEA. This includes all of the European Union — Ireland, Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Finland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Austria, and Greece — in addition to Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, the tiny country between Switzerland and Austria.

“Nationals of those countries have perfect freedom of movement,” McCabe said. But, he pointed out, anybody coming from outside that area requires a work permit.

However, he said that, in the case of intracorporate transfers — for example, if a person was working for Intel in the U.S. — he does not need a work permit to work in Ireland.

“They need a letter from their employer,” McCabe said.

As regards the skills required to obtain a work permit, McCabe said the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment does not prescribe them, adding that this was a matter for employers to determine.

Permits for Americans

“We had a very restrictive policy on work permits, but now we have adopted a more liberal approach,” McCabe said.

He pointed out that in 1996, Ireland issued 3,750 work permits, 4,491 in 1997 and 5,576 last year.

And he added that Americans were by far the largest category among recipients of work permits. In fact, he pointed out that Americans obtained a quarter of all the work permits issued.

McCabe also said that Ireland has an international student arrangement with the U.S. that includes reciprocal travel. He said that Americans now come to Ireland for their education and, occasionally, they may like the place so much they wish to stay.

However, he said that if they stay beyond their student visa they “are illegal and we cannot issue permits to illegals.”

He advised that students in this situation should not stay in Ireland but should return to the U.S. and seek out an employer who requires their skills in Ireland.

Corrigan said that the key to working legally in Ireland is to get a company to sponsor an application for a work permit. “It’s almost a carbon copy of what operates here in the U.S.,” Corrigan said.

“If a company wants someone, the regulations have been relaxed. The process can now be completed in six weeks.”