THE working holiday visa is becoming less popular among young Irish backpackers, with grants dropping by more than a third, the Irish Echo has learned.
In the past financial year, 11,817 first working holiday visas were granted to Irish holidaymakers, representing a year-on-year drop of 39.4 per cent.
The scheme hit a peak the previous year when 19,492 first visas were granted to Irish citizens, but since then the numbers coming to Australia on the scheme have fallen.
Despite the drop, Ireland has the highest per capita take-up of the visa among the top ten countries.
The latest government report into the scheme shows there has been a surge in the number of Irish holidaymakers who want to stay on after their first year.
The slump may be because of a tightening labour market or an improving economic situation in Europe and the Unites States but backpacker tourism representatives believes the hike in visa fees is deterring young travellers.
YHA Australia CEO Julian Ledger said some applicants might be put off by the recent fee rises for the working holiday visa.
“I would say it’s not a good strategy to be looking at these visas as a growing source of government revenue,” Mr Ledger said.
“It’s much better to keep the fees low and have an open, welcoming door. Any money that people don’t spend on a visa is money they spend when they get here.
“On behalf of the backpacker industry, I think we could say it would be good for the new government to freeze visa fees.”
Mr Ledger said the industry would also like to see changes to the second-year working holiday visa.
“The backpacker sector has made strong representations to government to relax the condition to get the second- year visa so you don’t just have to do three months regional harvest or construction work so three months regional hospitality work would be eligible. I was just in the Red Centre and all those outback roadhouses would close if it wasn’t for the working holiday-makers,” he said.
The working holiday (sub-class 417) visa allows backpackers to stay for a second year on completion of rural work.
In the past financial year, 7,300 Irish people were granted a second visa, more than double from two years ago.
It also represents a year-on-year rise of 15.2 per cent and is the highest figure for second-year working holiday visas for Irish citizens in five years.
Ireland has the second-highest take- up of second-year visas and is only slightly behind Britain, which had 7,349 visas granted.
In total, 19,117 first and second working holiday visas were granted in the past financial year – representing an overall drop of 26 per cent.
The Department of Immigration report also details the number of visa applications lodged by Irish citizens.
In the past financial year the figure dropped by 24.8 per cent when 19,744 applications were lodged.
On June 30, 15,845 working holiday visa-holders from Ireland were in Australia – representing a fall of 18.5 per cent in just 12 months.
Irish citizens make up just over ten per cent of the number of working holiday visa-holders in Australia and are the fourth-largest group behind Britain, Taiwan and South Korea.
Figures for the grant rate for the visa scheme over six-month periods show Irish applicants took a slight hit.
From January to June there was a 99.8 per cent grant rate for Ireland for the first-year visas – compared to the 100 per cent grant rate for the previous four six-month periods.
