Irish Echo News

Workers from the Republic of Ireland are being denied the opportunity to apply for an Australian skilled work visa that is available to British and other nationalities, the Irish Echo has learned.

In a situation that one migration agent has described as “completely discriminatory” Irish tradesmen who are not formally qualified cannot have their skills assessed even though workers from other countries can.

The ‘Pathway D’ method of skills assessment, which had allowed workers without formal qualifications to have their skills assessed by Trades Recognition Australia (TRA) with a view towards applying for permanent residency, was suddenly scrapped late last year by the Government.

But a substitute programme has been running ever since through which applicants from five specific countries can apply, leaving Irish citizens and many others out in the cold.

As it stands, non-qualified tradesmen from India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and South Africa, as well as British passport holders, can apply to have their skills assessed in 17 specific trades by VETASSESS, a training organization that was encharged with the task instead of the TRA late last year.

“It’s absolutely crazy, and it’s completely discriminatory,” migration agent Mary Lindsay told the Irish Echo. 

“As it stands, a guy from Northern Ireland can apply to have his skills assessed whereas his cousin down the road in the south can’t. If that’s not discriminatory I don’t know what is.”

The Australian Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations tried to explain why the opportunity for skills assessment is currently available only to those specific five countries, in a statement released to the Echo.

“It was decided that the new trades recognition arrangements would apply to residents of the UK, India, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the Philippines because these are Australia’s main source countries for applications for trades recognition for migration purpose, making up around 65 per cent of the applications received,” the statement read.

“As the initiative aims to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of the new measures the high source countries were selected to provide the largest number of applications possible while keeping the process practical and feasible.”

“It seems size does matter,” Lindsay retorted. 

“Those countries provide the largest numbers of migrants, but as a percentage Ireland would be right up there. 

“When ‘Pathway D’ was scrapped, everyone suffered from the dishonesty of certain countries which were abusing the scheme, but Irish citizens as well as people from many other countries are suffering from that,” she said.

“It’s a case of making honest people suffer for the acts of dishonest people.”

The VETASSESS scheme had originally only applied to a small number of specific trades, but the programme has now been extended to 17 separate occupations in which applicants can be assessed.

These now include: general electrician, general plumber, refrigeration and air-conditioning mechanic, motor mechanic, carpenter, joiner, electrical powerline tradesperson, cable joiner and bricklayer. 

With Ireland’s construction industry suffering a downturn, the number of Irish tradesmen looking to live and work in Australia is expected to increase this year.

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