{"id":413947,"date":"2026-04-23T19:21:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/413947\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T19:21:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:21:07","slug":"perceived-racism-may-hit-irelands-ability-to-attract-international-workers-conference-hears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/413947\/","title":{"rendered":"Perceived racism may hit Ireland\u2019s ability to attract international workers, conference hears \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ability of Irish employers to attract and retain international talent is being put at risk by the growing perception that tensions around issues of race have increased in recent years, an Ibec<\/a> employment law conference has been told.<\/p>\n

Administrative delays at the Department of Justice<\/a> are also making living and working in Ireland needlessly more challenging for many migrants, the event heard, while changes to family reunification rules for general work permit holders are likely to make it more difficult for employers to retain staff in the hospitality and construction sectors.<\/p>\n

At the event in Dublin, an audience of human resources managers and professionals was told by Ibec\u2019s head of social policy, Kara McGann, that Ireland\u2019s reputation as a welcoming place for overseas workers would \u201ctake decades to win back\u201d if it was lost.<\/p>\n

Legitimate concerns over shortages of housing<\/a>, GP services and transport infrastructure was, she said, being exploited by some on the far right, who used misinformation and disinformation to fuel genuine anxieties among the population, while \u201cwe\u2019ve also seen a breakdown in certain communities of communication around immigration, around integration, that hasn\u2019t helped this conversation\u201d.<\/p>\n

The potential consequences of this are serious for the economy and society, said McGann, who leads Ibec\u2019s Open for Business campaign. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Employers running out of time as changes on pay transparency and retirement loomOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cIf talent feels that it\u2019s not welcome, if talent feels that Ireland is closed, they will go elsewhere. And it\u2019s not even a case of that, they won\u2019t come to Ireland, but they will leave Ireland for elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got the issue around investment. Typically, capital and international capital likes to invest in an area where there\u2019s stability, and if they feel Ireland is getting a reputation for xenophobia, for racism, for homophobia, capital will do what it does in the face of volatility \u2013 it will go elsewhere.<\/p>\n

That, she said, would \u201cimpact the richness of our societies, our neighbourhoods, our communities, our sports fields\u201d but also Ireland\u2019s economy, as \u201cwe need migration, we need that talent. We need to be an inclusive society to keep the lights on, let alone to keep growing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00c1ngel Bello-Cort\u00e9s, a partner at immigration consultancy Fragomen, said ongoing delays in renewing Irish Residence Permits (IRPs) of overseas workers was also causing problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fairness to the Department of Justice, they have acknowledged it, that when it comes to the IRP cards, there are significant delays. We\u2019re looking at three months, three months-plus.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the issue tended to impact on people from different countries to different extents. \u201cFor example, a US national, if they need to travel and re-enter, even if their card is expired, in most cases they can do that. But if it\u2019s an Indian national and their card is gone, if they leave, they won\u2019t even be able to board the plane. Like, even the airline will say \u2018you\u2019re not getting into the plane\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if the employer is not familiar with the system, it can create issues with HR as well. So the card is certainly an issue, and those delays persist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding to a question in the D\u00e1il in recent days, Minister of State for Migration at the department, Colm Brophy, acknowledged the issue, which he put down to \u201cexceptionally high demand\u201d, and said additional staff had been assigned to help address the backlogs with further measures being considered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ability of Irish employers to attract and retain international talent is being put at risk by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9691,3662,4105,61,60,43,1962],"class_list":["post-413947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-department-of-justice","tag-housing-crisis","tag-ibec","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}