The authorities have moved swiftly to stem the abuse of schemes for bringing foreign workers into Ireland.
Two schemes aimed at facilitating the transfer of high-skilled non-European workers to the Republic have been suspended pending a review, following growing evidence that they were being misused.
Officials at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment believe the schemes were being used to by-pass work permit rules governing recruitment of workers from outside Europe. They had been concerned that some companies, in particular recruitment agencies, were exploiting the law to bring in unskilled foreign workers instead.
The Department announced yesterday the suspension of the two schemes governing intra-company transfers and training of non-European workers, which have been operating for three years.
Workers from outside the European Economic Area - the 15 EU member-states as well as Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland - must have a work permit to take up a job in the Republic. Employers are obliged to seek first to find an Irish or EEA national to fill a vacancy before offering the post to a non-EEA citizen on a work permit basis.
Under the Intra-Company Transfer Scheme, key personnel in companies were permitted to work for up to four years in Ireland without a work permit if they had been moved here from another branch of the same organisation outside the EEA. The second scheme, the Non-EEA Training Scheme, allowed Irish employers to bring in non-EEA personnel for up to three years for training.
Department officials had become increasingly concerned that "contrived arrangements are being put in place to exploit these facilities as a means of by-passing the work permit system and the domestic labour market".