To quote the article from http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0415/breaking33.htm
Under the new arrangements, permits will not be granted for
jobs paying under e30,000 per annum. Permits will also not be
given for a number of professions including domestic workers
and HGV drivers.
In addition, the length of time that employers have to advertise
jobs will be increased and tougher conditions for the renewal
of permits - including higher fees - will also apply.
A further change will see spouses and dependants of future work
permit holders having to apply for permits in their own right.
[...]
From June 1st, a number of roles in the healthcare, financial
services and marketing sector will also be ineligible for work
permits.
In amidst all this, now looking in hindsight after making my naturalisation application and reading into getting long term residency for the in between period. I as a foreigner, feel pretty irritated, I have the so called privilege of living and working in Ireland and being now allowed to apply for citizenship.
It's clear that I like living in Ireland, I like the people here for the most part, I generally accept the ruling government that is in power mostly due to the fact I didn't qualify to vote for any of the elections and I trust enough that the Irish population won't vote in politicians that make moronic decisions that affect the whole country.
I just feel irritated at the fact that the turn around time takes effectively two to three years to get naturalised. In the process of the application another arm of the government implements tougher rules and regulations for issuing work permits to foreigners. To top the icing on the cake, it appears laws are (usually) retrospective when it comes it foreigners in relation to naturalisation and long term residency.
I find it amusing to see how in the past the Irish people and government struggled so much to be free of the English rule and yet it has so much issues and problems in dealing with foreigners.
For Ireland to succeed in excelling in the knowledge based economy it needs to attract and maintain the best of the Irish and foreign nationals to Ireland. These tougher rules and regulations and the obscenely long processing times for naturalisation just doesn't appeal to me at all, it probably doesn't appeal to a lot of other possible candidates that might have otherwise made Ireland a better place by coming to Ireland. Part of me is telling me to leave Ireland and go somewhere else, but I've invested so much time here (I like it here apart from the bureaucracy).
Related posts:
GNIB 2011 (till 2012) - Here I go again
Posted
New Irish citizens will have to swear oath of fidelity
Posted
Astro, Particle, High Energy physics is cool
Posted
2011-05 -- Update on long naturalisation times in Ireland
Posted
