IRELAND - terms of workauthorisation questioned

Hi

A very strange situation has presented itself and it is far reaching and quite frankly discriminating.

I know of a person who applied for a workauthorisation in early 2006. His job offer was from a UK registered company who bought over an Irish company in 2005 and took over all the contracts of the employees who worked for the Irish company. Even thought the UK company is not registered in Ireland, it has an Irish base and is registered for VAT and as an Employer in Ireland.

It was based on this job offer that the Irish Embassy approved and issued his workauthorisation. He is still working for this same company.

Recently, his wife was offered a position and her proposed employer applied for a work permit in her name, on the SPOUSAL PERMIT SCHEME. However, this application was refused by the Dept. of Enterprise Trade and Employment on the grounds that :

Due to the fact that her Spouse is working for a UK company, it is regarded that he is not working within the terms of his workauthorisation and therefore she is not eligible for a permit under the spousal scheme.

So, basically, the Dept of Enterprise is saying that he is not working legally in Ireland due to the fact that the company he is working for is not registered in Ireland! EVEN THOUGH IT IS THE SAME COMPANY IN RESPECT OF WHICH THEY ISSUED HIS WORKAUTHORISATION.

In fact, during his workauthorisation application process, the Embassy actually phoned him and said that they note that his job offer is from a UK company and wanted to confirm that he will in fact be working IN IRELAND. He confirmed that he will be working IN Ireland and they were happy enough to issue the workauthorisation.

The info on the www.entemp.ie website state that workauthorisations will only be issued to a person if that person is directly employed and salaried by an employer IN Ireland. It does not state that the employer must be an Irish registered Company.

We all feel that he is working legally in Ireland, but don't the Department of Enterprise ultimately have the final say? Should they be worried about being deported?

What are they to do now? Has anyone come across a similar situation?