Every day, we hear about staff shortages across the hospitality, health, haulage, racing and retail sectors, all of which are alarmed by the unfolding situation. Meat factories across Tipperary and the wider country are finding it impossible to fill the jobs that would allow them to continue production. I have been contacted by the managements of ABP Food Group in Cahir and Nenagh and Rosderra Meats and Ashbourne Meat Processors in Roscrea. They are concerned about the shortage of workers. Their problem centres around work permits. Unless permits are fast-tracked to allow non-EU citizens to come to work in Ireland, our meat factories will stumble into crisis. Meat factories have been in this position for a number of months. Many former workers have left the country and new staff are not available due to permit delays. This is an unacceptable situation and is reducing productivity, restricting exports and damaging the competitiveness of the industry. We need swift and decisive action.

There are many lessons that the pandemic has taught us, one of which is the value of migrant labour to Ireland, be it people from Brazil or people from central and eastern Europe coming to Ireland to take up employment. That labour has been significantly reduced in large part by the travel restrictions that were in place and the number of flights that were cancelled or air services that are no longer flying. With international travel, including aviation, reopening, there will be increased opportunities to source labour and skills from abroad once again through the employment permit system. A review is under way and is nearing completion. We expect it to be completed within the next two weeks by around mid-October. At that point, the Minister of State, Deputy English, will be able to make an announcement.