Employment Permits

Since 2020, the State has issued 19,067 employment permits to nurses. No other occupation has received more. Doctors received 11,415 and healthcare assistants 11,176, out of 154,418 permits in total, according to the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment (DETE).

Public debate on immigration in Ireland tends to centre on international protection. Employment permits draw less argument, yet they are a large and planned route for workers from outside the European Economic Area (EEA). Ministers decide which jobs qualify, set minimum salaries by regulation and cap numbers in some lower-paid roles.

DETE estimates there are “approximately 65,000 people working in Ireland on current employment permits”.

Who receives permits

The latest full-year breakdown analysed in an official report covers 2024. That year, 39,390 permits were issued, a 27% increase on 2023, according to the ESRI’s migration overview, which uses DETE data. That total includes renewals. SOLAS counts “over 33,000” new permits in 2024.

Health and social work accounted for 12,501 permits (32%). Information and communication followed with 6,788 (17%). Agriculture, forestry and fishing received 3,625, up from 1,385 in 2023, and accommodation and food services 3,358.

By nationality, Indian citizens received 13,566 permits, or 34% of the total. Brazil (4,553), the Philippines (4,049), China (1,962) and Pakistan (1,742) came next.

DETE has since published spreadsheets for all of 2025 and for 2026 to date, most recently on 1 October 2026. Its own salary review gives one indicator for 2025: health and social work made up 27.04% of permits issued in the part of the year it covered, down from 31.75% in 2024.

Two main permits, two lists

There are two main permit types. A Critical Skills Employment Permit is for jobs on the Critical Skills Occupations List, which DETE describes as “professional roles that require significant skills”. A General Employment Permit can be granted for any job not on the Ineligible Occupations List: roles where the department finds “evidence that there are more than enough Irish/EEA workers”.

Before applying for a General Employment Permit, an employer must usually pass a labour market needs test. Under rules that took effect with the Employment Permits Act 2024 on 2 September 2024, the job must be advertised for at least 28 days on the Department of Social Protection’s JobsIreland service, on EURES and on a second online platform.

Salary floors rose on 1 March 2026 under a roadmap the Government published on 2 December 2025. The General Employment Permit minimum went from €34,000 to €36,605. The Critical Skills minimum for holders of a relevant degree went from €38,000 to €40,904. A lower rate for healthcare assistants, home carers, meat processing operatives and horticulture workers rose from €30,000 to €32,691, and is to be phased out by 2030.

Some lower-paid roles are also subject to quotas. Minister of State Alan Dillon said quotas ensure “migration complements, rather than substitutes for, training, apprenticeships, and upskilling measures”.

How the lists change

The occupation lists are reviewed periodically. The most recent review opened a public consultation from 23 July to 19 September 2025, which drew over 400 submissions. An interdepartmental group then assessed the evidence, using the SOLAS National Skills Bulletin as “a primary source of information”.

The outcome, announced on 28 May 2026, made 32 changes. Six roles moved onto the Critical Skills list, including agronomists, construction planners and geospatial surveyors. Nine became eligible for General Employment Permits without a quota, two gained new quotas and 15 had quotas renewed.

What the skills reviews say

The National Skills Bulletin 2025, published by SOLAS in October 2025, lists shortages of medical practitioners, nurses, software developers, IT analysts, civil engineers, quantity surveyors and carpenters, and a labour shortage of care workers. On ICT, it says “employment permits remain a key source of supply of skills”.

Nursing registration figures show the same pattern. Of 92,385 nurses and midwives on the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland register on 1 June 2025, 45,640 qualified in Ireland and 43,894 outside the EU. In 2024, 5,426 of 7,120 first-time registrants were educated outside the EU. The board’s count for the most recent reporting year was lower: 3,345 of 5,136.

DETE’s salary review describes health and social care as “increasingly reliant on non-EEA recruitment”.

Questions officials raise

The department’s stated policy is to recruit from Ireland and the EEA first, and to use permits for skilled roles that cannot be filled that way. Officials also set out limits and concerns.

The first is evidence. During reviews, sectors must show that hiring difficulties reflect real shortages across the EEA, and not pay or working conditions.

The second is dependence. The 2025 occupations review, citing the CSO’s Labour Force Survey, notes that “migrant workers accounted for nearly 70% of employment growth in the past year”. It adds that migration is projected to become “the sole driver of workforce growth over the coming decades”.

The third is housing. The review names housing among the services migrants need for successful integration, and lists housing shortages among the pressures raising demand for construction workers. The Department of Housing told the review that delivery will need recruitment “including international recruitment where domestic capacity is insufficient”.

The Government has also approved preparation of an amendment to the Act’s 50:50 rule, which requires at least half of an employer’s workforce to be EEA, UK or Swiss nationals, after a review of its effect on health and social care employers, including nursing homes and home care.

Beside international protection

The routes work differently. Employment permits are tied to a job offer and set by regulation. International protection is a legal process in which people apply for refugee status or subsidiary protection, and the number of applications is not capped. The figures below count different things and are shown for scale only.

Measure	Period	Number
Employment permits issued, including renewals	2024	39,390
New employment permits issued	2024	over 33,000
International protection applications	January to September 2024	15,583
International protection applications	January to September 2025	9,589
International protection applications	2025	13,162

The full-year 2025 figure comes from the Oireachtas Library, citing International Protection Office (IPO) statistics. Applications in the first nine months of 2025 were 38.5% lower than in the same period of 2024, according to the IPO’s September 2025 report.

What to watch

Full-year 2026 permit statistics: DETE published the 2025 figures on 2 January 2026, so the 2026 totals are likely in early January 2027.

Salary thresholds: the roadmap marks the January 2027 thresholds as “to be determined” after indexation to CSO earnings data. The lower care and agri-food rate is set to rise to 92.5% of the general threshold.

The Seasonal Employment Permit, created by the 2024 Act, allows up to seven months’ work a year. Its 2025 pilot, limited to soft fruit and vegetable growers, granted 33 permits, and 23 workers took part. DETE’s June 2026 evaluation found that “accommodation oversight emerged as a significant risk area”. It recommends a second pilot phase beginning in the third quarter of 2026, for the 2027 season, and says a full scheme would be “premature”.

The next review of the occupation lists is “intended to be carried out within the next two years”, which means by mid-2028.