About a third of asylum-seekers who are permitted to work are currently in a job, figures show. Employers' organisations want further changes in the law to allow more asylum-seekers to join the labour force.
Out of 2,683 asylum-seekers currently eligible to work, 748 have either found jobs or have ceased to claim social welfare payments for other reasons, according to the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs.
Only asylum-seekers who applied for refugee status before last July and have been waiting for a year for a decision are entitled to look for work. By next month - the 12 month cut-off point for the scheme - a total of 4,100 asylum-seekers will be permitted to work. With more than 15,000 in the State and a backlog of about 11,000 applications, the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME) said all asylum-seekers should be allowed to work after three months.
ISME's chairman, Mr Shay Fitzmaurice, said its members were facing serious staff shortages, with a recent survey showing that almost seven out of 10 businesses had job vacancies. Mr Fitzmaurice said a skills register should be drawn up, and those asylum-seekers dispersed around the State should be sent to areas where their skills were in demand.
"This would be fairer for asylum-seekers, rather than having them seen as spongers, and it would allow them to assimilate into the population a lot better," he said.
The work restrictions were criticised recently by the Bishop of Kerry, the Most Rev Dr Bill Murphy, who said the main problem facing asylum-seekers living in Kerry was "sheer boredom".
However, the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, insisted in the Dail last week that the work scheme for asylum-seekers would not be changed.
Under the scheme, introduced last July, eligible asylum-seekers had to find a job first and then ask their employer to secure a work permit. This procedure was criticised by asylum-seeker groups as cumbersome and bureaucratic, with only 67 job permits issued in its first five months.
The process was simplified last December so that those eligible would no longer require work permits. Instead, they are issued with an official letter to show to potential employees.