Employment Permits Act 2024

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Year: 2024
• Citation: IR No. 17/2024

Employment Permits Act 2024

2024 17

An Act to provide for the grant of employment permits to certain foreign nationals for the purpose of permitting such persons to be in employment in the State; to prohibit the employment in the State of certain foreign nationals who do not have such permits; to impose certain restrictions and conditions in respect of the grant of such permits; to enable the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to make, having regard to certain matters, regulations to impose certain other restrictions and conditions in respect of the grant of such permits; to provide for the enforcement of provisions of this Act and the imposition of penalties for contraventions of this Act; to provide for civil proceedings to recompense certain foreign nationals for work done or services rendered in certain circumstances; to otherwise regulate the employment in the State of certain foreign nationals; to repeal the Employment Permits Act 2003 and the Employment Permits Act 2006; to provide for consequential amendment to certain other enactments; and to provide for related matters.

[25 June 2024]

" xml:lang="en" LANG="en" datatype="xsd:string" /> Employment Permits Act 2024 function OptanonWrapper() { } window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [

1 Short title and commencement

(1) This Act may be cited as the Employment Permits Act 2024.

(2) This Act shall come into operation on such day or days as the Minister may by order or orders appoint either generally or with reference to any particular purpose or provision and different days may be so appointed for different purposes or different provisions and for the repeal of different enactments or provisions of enactments effected by section 6.

2 Interpretation

(1) In this Act—

“Act of 1963” means the Registration of Business Names Act 1963;

“Act of 1967” means the Redundancy Payments Act 1967;

“Act of 1997” means the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997;

“Act of 2003” means the Employment Permits Act 2003;

“Act of 2006” means the Employment Permits Act 2006;

“applicant”, in relation to an application, means the person who made the application;

“application” means an application under section 12 or, as the case may be, section 36;

“approved seasonal employer” has the meaning assigned to it by section 10(5);

“approved seasonal employer certificate” has the meaning assigned to it by section 10(6);

“civil partner” means a civil partner within the meaning of the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010;

“connected”, in relation to the connection between a connected person and a foreign employer, means—

(a)

the connected person is a subsidiary of the foreign employer,

(b)

the foreign employer is a subsidiary of the connected person,

(c)

the connected person and the foreign employer are both subsidiaries of a holding company that carries on business in the State or outside the State, or

(d)

the connected person and the foreign employer have entered into an agreement with another person whereby each of them agree to carry on business or provide services with each other in more than one state and to carry on business or provide services in the manner provided for in the agreement;

“connected person” means a person carrying on business in the State who is connected to a foreign employer;

“contract for service employment permit” has the meaning assigned to it by section 9(2)(e);

“contract of employment” means—

(a)

a contract of service or apprenticeship, or

(b)

any other contract whereby an individual agrees with another person, who is carrying on the business of an employment agency within the meaning of the Employment Agency Act 1971 and is acting in the course of that business, to do or perform personally any work or service for a third person (whether or not the third person is a party to the contract),

whether the contract is express or implied and if express, whether it is oral or in writing;

“contract service agreement” means an agreement between a relevant person and a contractor whereby the contractor agrees to provide, cause, or arrange for, services to be rendered for or on behalf of the relevant person;

“contractor”, in relation to a contract service agreement, means the person who agrees to provide, cause, or arrange for, services the subject of the contract service agreement to be rendered for or on behalf of a relevant person;

“critical skills employment permit” has the meaning assigned to it by section 9(2)(a);

“date of dismissal”, in relation to a foreign national who is dismissed by reason of redundancy, has the meaning assigned to it by section 2 of the Act of 1967;

“dependant” means a foreign national who—

(a)

has been determined by the Minister for Justice to be a dependant, other than the spouse or civil partner, of a primary permit holder or a research project researcher,

(b)

has, since he or she landed in the State, resided in the State on a continual basis,

(c)

is not in full-time education, and

(d)

resides with the primary permit holder or the research project researcher referred to inparagraph (a);

“dependant employment permit” has the meaning assigned to it by section 9(2)(b);

“Directive 2005/71/EC” means Council Directive 2005/71/EC of 12 October 2005 ¹1 on a specific procedure for admitting third-country nationals for the purposes of scientific research;

“dismissed by reason of redundancy” means the dismissal by an employer within the meaning of section 9 of the Act of 1967 where the dismissal is—

(a)

attributable wholly or mainly to one or more of the matters specified in paragraphs (a) to (e) of section 7(2) of the Act of 1967, or

(b)

a dismissal referred to in section 21 of the Act of 1967;

“economic sector” means a sector of the economy concerned with a specific economic activity requiring specific qualifications, skills or knowledge;

“employer”, in relation to a foreign national who is in employment in the State, means the person with whom the foreign national has entered into or for whom the foreign national works under (or where the employment has ceased, entered into or worked under) a contract of employment;

“employment permit”, subject to section 70, means an employment permit granted under section 19;

“enactment” has the same meaning as it has in the Interpretation Act 2005;

“enterprise development agency” means Enterprise Ireland or the Industrial Development Agency (Ireland);

“exchange agreement” means an agreement, including an international agreement to which the State is a party, that provides for the reciprocal employment—

(a)

of Irish citizens, or certain Irish citizens, in the state in which a contracting party is located, and

(b)

in the State, of foreign nationals, or certain foreign nationals, of a contracting party;

“exchange agreement employment permit” has the meaning assigned to it by section 9(2)(g);

“foreign employer” means a person carrying on business outside the State;

“foreign national” means a non-national within the meaning of the Immigration Act 1999;

“foreign national concerned” has the meaning assigned to it by section 12(3);

“general employment permit” has the meaning assigned to it by section 9(2)(c);

“health insurance” means insurance providing for the costs and charges of medical treatment;

“health insurer” means a person entered in the Register of Health Benefits Undertakings referred to in section 14 of the Health Insurance Act 1994;

“holder”, in relation to an employment permit, means the foreign national to whom it has been granted;

“holding company” shall be construed in accordance with section 8 of the Companies Act 2014;

“internship employment permit” has the meaning assigned to it by section 9(2)(i);

“intra-company transfer employment permit” has the meaning assigned to it by section 9(2)(d);

“Irish citizen” means an Irish citizen within the meaning of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956;

“medical treatment” includes medical services or medical care;

“Member State of the EEA” means a state that is a contracting party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area signed at Oporto on 2 May 1992, as amended for the time being;

“Minister” means the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment;

“national minimum hourly rate of pay” has the same meaning as it has in the National Minimum Wage Act 2000;

“non-consultant hospital doctor” means a person who is employed as a registered medical practitioner within the meaning of section 2 of the Medical Practitioners Act 2007, other than a person registered in the Specialist Division within the meaning of that section;

“place” includes any dwelling or any building or part of a building;

“prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made by the Minister under this Act;

“primary permit holder” means a foreign national to whom a critical skills employment permit—

(a)

has been granted and is in force, or

(b)

had been granted and has expired and following such expiration—

(i) the foreign national has been given the permission referred to insection 8(1)(f) to remain in the State, and

(ii) is in employment in the State pursuant to the condition, referred to insection 8(1)(f), of that permission;

“public interest” includes—

(a)

public order and the interests of national security,

(b)

public health and safety,

(c)

the need to protect and strengthen the labour market, and

(d)

supporting the economic growth of the State;

“reactivation employment permit” has the meaning assigned to it by section 9(2)(f);

“register” has the meaning assigned to it by section 64(2);

“registered with the Revenue Commissioners” means registered with the Revenue Commissioners in accordance with regulations made under section 986 of the Act of 1997;

“regulatory body” means a body which is concerned with regulating the entry to or the carrying on of, a profession, employment or trade in the State and includes a body established by or under any enactment;

“relevant person”, in relation to a contract service...