Ireland’s Department of Enterprise, Trade, and Employment has implemented an action plan to reduce processing times and the backlog, which has increased over the past year.
In 2021, approximately 27,600 applications were received, a 69% increase over the 2020 total received and a 47% increase over 2019 totals.
In response, the Department will significantly increase staffing with the aim to see the “backlog considerably reduced by the end of quarter one and substantially reduced by the end of quarter two this year,” according to Department Minister Damien English. The Department plans to maintain processing times for all CSEP applications at approximately 6 weeks for all of Q2, assuming that demand remains at current levels.
Erickson Insights
Permit processing times were also impacted by a cyberattack, which resulted in the employment permit applications for the July doctors’ rotation being submitted manually. As a result, internal processes have been streamlined, and hundreds of doctors have been removed from the system.
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