Overseas employees could be forgiven for feeling a lot less welcome in the Republic now than they did at the beginning of this year. The reception officially became cooler a few weeks ago when the Tβnaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, unveiled new work permit rules that will make it more difficult to employ a non-European immigrant worker from next month.
Employers who wish to do so will be obliged to prove that they tried to fill the position with a European Economic Area (EEA) resident before a work permit will be handed over. The maximum cost for one of these permits is also set to rise: from €159 (£125) to €400.
It's hard to argue with the logic of the changes, since unemployment is growing for the first time since 1996. Introducing the new administrative picture, Ms Harney said that the changes simply reflected "prevailing labour market conditions".
It would seem that the bottom line, at least in some sectors, is that it makes no sense to award permits to immigrant workers when the numbers of qualified Irish workers are rising steadily.
"We had reached a situation where applications for work permits were continuing to increase despite recent job losses and the generally acknowledged prospects for a slower rate of growth in the economy," said Ms Harney.
The issue of work permit applications multiplying in a less prosperous economy is an important one. This year so far, around 36,000 permits have been awarded in respect of non-EEA nationals, around double last year's figure. The reasons for the dramatic increase are unclear but questions about cheap labour are being raised.
Earlier this year, the Consumers' Association of Ireland said that it had received a "mountain of complaints" from immigrant workers about poor wage payments and working conditions. The association claimed that complaints were particularly widespread in the hotel and fast-food sectors where "slave labour" was not uncommon.
Although the claims were immediately refuted by employers' representative body IBEC, doubts remain.
Of the permits awarded this year, the largest proportion applied to employees from Latvia, for whom more than 4,000 permits are currently valid.
The next most popular nations are also EU-accession countries: Lithuania and Poland, which account for more than 5,000 permits between them.
The permit restrictions are not yet all-encompassing, however. No changes have been made to the fast-track work visa approval system that was introduced in early 2000. This system, designed to address employment shortages in eight specific areas, is still in operation, with 3,870 such visas or authorisations currently valid.
These visas are held by nationals from more than 60 countries, with the largest proportion going to Filipino nationals most probably attracted by the Republic's wide-ranging nursing opportunities. South Africans and Indians, both countries that produce large numbers of qualified IT personnel, comprise the next most significant categories.
