This petition is specific to legal migration, not illegal migrants or asylum seekers. This petition is not blaming the  migrants already here, most of whom do not have the complete picture before coming to Ireland. The misuse is by the corporations and institutions who are using loopholes in work permit policy, and the government policy which is too liberal. The petition is to reduce the migrations going forward before things get too out of control. The petition has been drafted with considerable insights including from migrants most of whom themselves support reduced migration.

Every country has its limits in accommodating foreigners and migrants. Initially, it may seem beneficial to the economy and society, but if the numbers grow too large, cultural issues may arise. Ireland is a small country with only a few medium-sized cities and very limited housing, schools, roads, parks, medical care, and other infrastructure. A sudden influx of too many migrants can strain these resources which negatively impacts everyone including the migrants. Ireland is also in the process of losing its identity as being a friendly helpful non racist culture due to this.

Misuse of Work Permits

The Irish system is being misused when it comes to work permits. While EU citizens can work in Ireland without a permit, and UK citizens can work in Ireland due to the CTA, non-EU citizens must obtain a permit to work in Ireland. This permit should only be given to highly skilled individuals. However, many companies are issuing permits with lower pay.

Of the two work permit types, General and Critical Skills, the critical skills permit is the most appealing due to its allowance for immediate family entry, eligibility for stamp 4 after two years etc..

https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/what-we-do/workplace-and-skills/employment-permits/permit-types/critical-skills-employment-permit/​

https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/what-we-do/workplace-and-skills/employment-permits/employment-permit-eligibility/highly-skilled-eligible-occupations-list/

The classification of permits into 2 types with the same threshold of pay is an extremely flawed approach. There are a large number of occupations which come under critical skills, the minimum pay for critical skills is 44000 euros. Now this may seem a lot in some professions, but for some fields like software engineering where a 10 year experienced Irish/EU engineer may demand 80000 euros, the company can save cost by bringing in a migrant at 60,000 euros thus decreasing the pay scale for everyone. Also the critical skills does not differ between niche skills, a person who is very skilled in niche Artificial Intelligence data science, and a person during basic manual software testing are both the same.

For General Permits, it is required to do a labor market test to check if the job can be given to a Irish National or EEA nationals before issuing the permit, however for critical skills there is no labor test to be done which is a big loophole allowing companies to create entire workforces of people working on work permits.

https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/what-we-do/workplace-and-skills/employment-permits/employment-permit-eligibility/labour-market-needs-test/

Just to give some stats, the total number of permits issued in 2014 was 4000. It has raised over the years, and from 2022 the permits issued was on average 30,000. This is a lot every year for a small country like Ireland.

This has allowed corporates to not invest in training and building skills within Ireland and fully relying on outside workers.

A lot of these permits in past have gone to people form India, China, Japan, Africa who are known to assimilate well into societies and respect local culture, however in recent few years a large number of permits in are also being issued to citizens of specific countries and religions who may not be compatible with Irish culture in the long term, they will not go out for pints and socialize, they do not eat local meat which is not slaughtered as per their religion, their wife's and daughters have no freedom in clothing. This can create problems for Ireland in long term, similar to other European countries. Hence a balance is needed here.

Some Solutions for Work Permits

• Put a limit on the number of Permits which can be given by a company. It should be max 30%. If a company has more than 30% of employees from outside Europe, something is not right.  This will ensure the company also puts effort in hiring Irish youth and training them. (If possible, This percentage should be actually at each Unit within the company, else it can be misused. For example a Firm may be having a lot of outlets where they may hire Irish and EU citizens, but they may hire all their backend workers fully from Non EU.)
   
• Certain sub professions in critical skills like Software Engineering / IT need their own higher salary criteria starting at 60,000 euros, or need labor market tests. This way companies will be willing to pay this amount only for the most essential skills that they cannot find within the EU, and will not resort to hiring non-EU workers solely to save costs or build their business model relying on work permits.