Hiring an employee in Ireland

What has to be in place before an Irish employee starts?

The right to work, a contract that respects the statutory limits and an employer registered with Revenue (the Irish tax authority) for PAYE and PRSI. Each of those three has a detail that decides the rest.

How much annual leave does a first-year employee actually get?

Less than four working weeks where the employee joins part way through the leave year and the reason is a bracket in the statute itself.

Annual leave under the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 is calculated three ways and where more than one applies the employee gets the greater result. The first method gives four working weeks in a leave year in which the employee works at least 1,365 hours. The second gives one third of a working week for each calendar month in which they work at least 117 hours. The third gives 8% of the hours worked in the leave year, capped at four working weeks.

The bracket is on the first method. It is expressly disapplied in a leave year in which the employee changes employment. Moving from one employer to another is a change of employment, so in the leave year the employee joins, that method is unavailable however many hours they work. Entitlement falls to the two proportional methods instead, which accrue with qualifying months and with hours worked.

The exclusion attaches to the leave year, not to the employee's first year of service, and the leave year runs from 1 April. So an employee joining in October is inside a change-of-employment leave year only until 31 March and the first method is available again from the following 1 April while they are still in their first year with the employer. An employee who qualifies in all twelve months of a leave year reaches four working weeks under the second method, so the shortfall belongs to the mid-year joiner rather than to every new hire.

That matters more here than it looks. Four working weeks is the statutory maximum, not the entitlement of someone who joins part way through the leave year and a "four weeks' holiday" line in an offer letter promises something the statute does not deliver to a mid-year joiner. It is also the reason leave accrual is worth setting out explicitly in a first-year contract rather than left to a headline figure.

Two definitions do quiet work in the calculation. A working week is the number of days the employee usually works, so four working weeks is not four times five days for everyone. And the cap on the third method attaches to that method rather than sitting over the calculation as a whole.

Public holidays are separate and additional. There are ten a year and for each one the employer chooses between a paid day off on the day, a paid day off within a month of it, an additional day of annual leave, or an additional day's pay. The choice belongs to the employer rather than the employee.

How long can a probationary period run?

Six months, where the contract provides for a probationary period. Twelve is possible but the ground is narrow and a second mechanic that extends probation is not a choice at all.

The six-month cap sits at section 6D of the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994, inserted by the 2022 regulations that transposed the EU transparent and predictable working conditions directive. It may be longer only on an exceptional basis and only where the longer period does not exceed twelve months and is in the interest of the employee. Both conditions have to be met. There is no ground based on the nature of the work: that limb exists in the directive and Ireland did not transpose it. A public servant's probation may not exceed twelve months.

The second mechanic is mandatory rather than discretionary and it runs the other way. Where an employee is absent during probation on any of seven named types of leave, the employer must extend the probationary period by the length of that absence. The seven are maternity, adoptive, parental, carer's, paternity, parent's and statutory sick leave.

The list is closed and the boundary is the useful part. Annual leave and public holidays are statutory leave but are not on it, so probation is not extended for a fortnight's holiday taken during the probationary period. Treating every statutory absence as an extension trigger overstates the rule in the employee's favour and produces a probation end date that does not match the contract.

What notice does length of service buy?

Nothing at all for the first thirteen weeks and then a ladder that tops out at eight weeks.

The right to statutory notice begins at thirteen weeks' continuous service, under the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Acts 1973 to 2005. Before that point there is no statutory minimum to give.

These are minimums. A contract may give more and where it does the contractual period governs.

Who needs an employment permit?

A national of a country outside the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, unless they fall outside the permit requirement on another ground. An employment permit is often referred to as an Irish work visa, though strictly the permit authorises the employment while a separate entry visa may also be required.

Nationals of the EEA, the UK and Switzerland need no employment permit. Section 8 of the Employment Permits Act 2024 places other categories outside the requirement as well, including people whose immigration permission already carries the right to work in its own right. The practical consequence is that nationality alone does not answer the question: the individual's immigration permission has to be checked, because a person from outside those three groups may already hold permission that allows employment without any permit at all.

Where a permit is needed, the thresholds are set by remuneration and by occupation rather than by seniority.

A General Employment Permit requires minimum annual remuneration of €36,605, with lower rates for recent graduates of Irish institutions and for certain other roles. A Critical Skills Employment Permit requires €40,904 for occupations on the Critical Skills Occupations List that require a relevant degree qualification or higher, €36,848 where the applicant received that qualification in the twelve months before applying, or over €68,911 for occupations that are neither on the Ineligible List of Occupations for Employment Permits nor contrary to the public interest.

The degree condition on the €40,904 tier is what separates it from the higher one, where relevant experience can substitute for a qualification. Both the thresholds and the occupation lists are amended by statutory instrument from time to time, the thresholds under a roadmap running to 2030 and the lists after periodic review, so a figure checked at offer stage is worth rechecking at application.

What does an employer owe on sickness absence?

Five paid statutory sick days a year, at 70% of the employee's usual daily earnings, capped at €110 a day and only for certified leave.

Three conditions narrow it. The leave must be certified, so uncertified absence carries no statutory payment. The employee needs thirteen weeks' continuous service to qualify, which is the same threshold that switches on statutory notice. And the €110 is a daily cap rather than an annual one, so the statutory exposure is five days at up to €110 rather than €110 in total.

The number of days is set by Ministerial order rather than fixed in the Act. The order that set five days took effect from 1 January 2024 and none has been made since, so five is the position. It can be increased by order under section 6 of the Sick Leave Act 2022, by no more than three days at a time and no more often than once every twelve months. An order cannot reduce it.