Demand for migrant workers to fill skills has seen a surge in employers seeking work permits.
In the last month alone there has been 5,366 applications made to the Department of Enterprise for work permits.
Nurses, healthcare assistants, chefs, computer programmers and doctors are among the top candidates being sought.
Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise Neale Richmond told The Pat Kenny Show these are vital jobs that need to be filled.
"These are sectors where we have a clear skills gap; where we can't fill these positions with workers either from Ireland or across European Economic Area and indeed the UK," he said.
"Mainly last year, we saw a huge amount come into the health sector - over 4,500 nurses came into Ireland last year, over 2,500 healthcare assistants.
"Last year we still saw quite a number of people coming into the tech sector, although that was down on the previous year, as well as financial services."
He said there is also an "increasing" amount of people coming into the construction sector.
'Economic growth'
Minister Richmond said Ireland is not alone in this area.
"We've actually increased the minimum salary thresholds that people will need to pay in order to get these workers in," he said.
"These are good jobs; these are highly paid jobs, but unfortunately Ireland, just like the rest of the European Union, has a serious labour skills shortage.
"This is largely down to the fact that our economy has been growing so fast and businesses have been growing so much more.
"But equally our society is growing - we simply need more nurses at the moment than we can produce; we need more construction workers than we can produce".
He said more people are going into apprenticeships in recent years - but "they take time to get out working on building sites".
Irish employment permits. Image: Department of Enterprise, Trade and EmploymentResponding to criticism that the work permit and visa systems are separate and complicated, Minister Richmond said this should improve in the next year.
"At the moment they are two separate processes but we can get a general work permit issued in under 20 days," he said.
"Visas take longer but thankfully that's one new system that we hope to have live in the next 12 to 18 months.
"It'll be one application and you'll be given the work permit and the visa at the same time.
"It's a major undertaking to build that new system, but work is well underway and we hope to be able to deliver that very soon," he added.
Minister Richmond added that work permits are valid for one year which can then be extended by employers.
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