The State's first green card scheme will come into operation next week, enabling employers to recruit highly-skilled workers from outside Europe.
The scheme is just one strand of the Government's new economic migration policy which was unveiled yesterday by Minister for Trade, Enterprise and Employment Micheál Martin.
In addition to green cards, three new types of work permits will become available from February 1st onwards.
The Minister said the new arrangements would ensure that Ireland could access high-level skills which were not available within Europe and which were vital to our economic success.
Speaking after the launch, he said he envisaged 10,000 new permits being issued each year.
The green card scheme will cover occupations offering an annual salary of €60,000 or more.
It will also extend to some occupations in the €30,000 to €59,999 salary bracket where "strategically-important" high-level skills shortages have been identified, such as in healthcare, construction and financial services.
Both employers and employees can apply for a green card, which will be issued to successful candidates for an initial period of two years, and this will generally lead to permanent residency. Green card holders will be allowed to bring their spouses and children to join them in Ireland immediately.
A revised work permit scheme was also launched yesterday.
This mainly covers non-green card occupations with salaries over €30,000. Such permits are issued initially for two years, and then for a further three-year period.
Unlike the green card scheme, a "labour market test" must be applied to any vacancy which is the subject of a work permit application to ensure the job cannot be filled by a European national.
A number of job categories which can clearly be filled from within Europe have been excluded from the work permit scheme, such as labourers, childminders and all hotel and catering staff except for chefs.
A new intra-company transfer scheme will also begin next week, as will an arrangement allowing spouses and dependants of employment permit holders to apply for permits.
Mr Martin stressed that the new system would protect the rights of migrant workers. For example, green cards and work permits would be issued directly to employees.
The permit system received a warm welcome, although groups representing migrant workers sounded a note of caution.
The Immigrant Council of Ireland expressed concern that people would be prevented from changing employers within the first 12 months of starting a job, increasing the potential for exploitation in the workplace.
Danny McCoy of Ibec said while most of our labour needs could be met by workers from Ireland and the new EU states, skills gaps still existed. "It is vital we have a way of filling these."
Aileen O'Donoghue of Financial Services Ireland said Ireland's ability to compete for key financial skills had been constrained until now. The new green card system would "radically and positively" alter our ability to attract highly-skilled people from overseas.
Patricia Callan of the Small Firms Association said the arrangements would remove the "wide-scale confusion" previously caused by the immigration system.