Hiring Motor Mechanics from Overseas for an Irish Garage: the Permit, the 1,000-Permit Quota and When to Apply

Yes, an Irish garage or dealership can hire a motor mechanic from outside the EU. Car mechanics, motor mechanics, auto electricians and motor vehicle technicians are eligible for a General Employment Permit. The catch is that they share a quota. Since 13 May 2026 the four titles have drawn on one national pool of 1,000 permits, and when that pool runs out, applications still waiting in DETE's queue are rejected.

So the question for a garage owner isn't just whether a permit is possible. It's whether the quota will still be open when your application reaches the front of the queue, and what you can do to protect the money you spend getting there.

The Quota Is the Real Question

Quotas are set in Schedule 5 of the Employment Permits Regulations 2024. S.I. 213/2026 replaced that schedule in full, and the row that matters to a garage reads:

The four titles share the one pool. A car mechanic hired by a Cork dealership and an auto electrician hired by a Donegal garage both come out of the same 1,000.

The history explains why this matters. DETE extended this quota by 200 permits in November 2024 and by another 200 under S.I. 119/2025, in force from 7 April 2025. On 19 March 2026 it published a notice that the S.I. 119/2025 quota had been filled. DETE told employers not to submit new mechanic applications, and that held until the new quota started on 13 May.

The new pool is five times the size of that last 200-permit tranche. It's still a pool, though. Because the earlier quota had expired, DETE required every employer to run a fresh Labour Market Needs Test for the new one. If you started that test on 13 May, the earliest valid application date was 10 June 2026. Any garage that had been waiting since March was starting from the same line.

How many of the 1,000 are left? Nobody outside DETE knows. The department publishes no running count. Its permit statistics break down by nationality, county, company and sector, not by occupation, so you can't work the number out either. We won't estimate it, and you should be wary of anyone who does.

What Happens When the Quota Fills

DETE's quota notices are blunt. The 19 March 2026 mechanic notice reads: "Applications submitted and awaiting processing will now be rejected. No new applications for car mechanic, motor mechanic, auto electrician, motor vehicle technician should be submitted."

A queued application is rejected, not held over. It does not wait for the next quota and it does not move to the front when a new pool opens. If a new quota does follow, you start again, including a fresh Labour Market Needs Test, as employers had to in May.

That makes your exposure longer than most garage owners expect. It runs in two parts:

1. The 28-day Labour Market Needs Test. You can't apply until the vacancy has been advertised for 28 days. The quota can fill while your advert runs, and you will have paid for it.
2. The DETE decision queue. Applications are decided in date order. Until yours is decided, it is exposed. Our processing times tracker shows how far behind the General Employment Permit queue currently sits.

Schedule 5 caps the number of permits that may be granted. Running an advert does not reserve a place, and neither does paying the fee and submitting.

Warnings aren't guaranteed either. For meat processor operatives, DETE published a notice on 26 August 2026 saying that quota was oversubscribed and almost filled. For the mechanic tranche that closed in March, the closure notice was the only notice DETE published.

How to Check Before You Spend on Advertising

You can't see the quota count, but you can avoid the mistakes that cost garages money. Before you start the Labour Market Needs Test:

• Read DETE's latest notices page on the day. The employment permits notices page is where a closure or an oversubscription warning appears. Check it again on the day you submit.
• Check which instrument a notice names. The 19 March 2026 "filled" notice is still on that page and is easy to misread as current. It refers to the 200-permit quota under S.I. 119/2025, not the 1,000-permit quota that started on 13 May 2026.
• Have the candidate ready before the advert goes up. The test has to run for 28 days regardless. If the candidate, the contract and the company documents are ready by day 28, you apply on day 29 rather than weeks later, and you spend less time exposed.
• Get the job title and duties right first. If the role is coded to an ineligible occupation, the quota is irrelevant. That trap is the next section.

The Labour Market Needs Test guide covers where and how to advertise. The 2026 quota guide lists every capped occupation, including the separate HGV/bus mechanic quota.

Which Garage Roles Qualify, and Which Do Not

Irish permit eligibility runs on the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC 2010), and the application has to give DETE a full description of the job, not just a title. A garage employs a lot of people who all "work on cars", and they don't all land in the same code.

The manager trap. "Garage manager" is on the ineligible list (1252). So is "workshop manager [garage]": the ONS SOC 2010 coding index puts that title in 1252 too. "Service manager [garage]" and "garage foreman" code to 5250, skilled trades supervisors, which is eligible and outside any quota. What separates them is whether the job is running the business or running the workshop floor. A job spec built around P&L, sales targets and the whole aftersales department describes a garage manager. One built around allocating jobs, supervising technicians and signing off quality describes a service manager or foreman. Use that title, and write the duties to match the job the person will actually do.

No salary rescues an ineligible title. A Critical Skills Employment Permit is open to any occupation paid over €68,911, other than those on the ineligible list. Paying a garage manager more does not make the role permittable. The Critical Skills Occupations List itself has no motor trade entry. If you search it for "mechanic", the only hit is mechanical engineers, a degree-level profession that has nothing to do with workshop technicians.

Separate quotas are separate pools. If you run a commercial vehicle workshop, an HGV/bus mechanic draws on the 442 pool, not the 1,000. One can fill while the other stays open. The quota guide tracks all of them.

The Salary Floor

A motor mechanic on a General Employment Permit must be paid at least €36,605 a year, based on a 39-hour week. Mechanics are not in the reduced €32,691 band. DETE applies that band only to horticulture workers, meat processor operatives, healthcare assistants and home support workers.

Only two things count toward the threshold: basic salary, and payments to a health insurer registered in Ireland. Overtime, bonuses, a van or accommodation don't count. If the week is shorter than 39 hours, the annual figure still has to be met. The detail is in our guide to the minimum salary for an overseas worker.

Treat €36,605 as the legal minimum, not a market rate. A qualified technician you would actually want in your workshop will usually expect more. Pricing the job at the floor tends to show up as a weak response to the advert.

You also need to meet the 50:50 rule: on the day you apply, at least half your employees must be EEA nationals. A small independent garage with four staff should count heads before advertising.

How Long It Takes

In our experience, plan for roughly 6 to 8 months from the first call to the mechanic starting work when the candidate needs an Irish entry visa. Allow about 4 to 5 months when they don't, because the visa stage drops out. That covers sourcing and interviews, the 28-day Labour Market Needs Test, the DETE decision queue, the visa, travel and the first registration appointments. Our costs and timelines page breaks it down stage by stage.

For a quota role, the timeline and the quota interact. You are effectively deciding today whether the pool will still have room in a couple of months' time. That's why the checks above come before the advert, not after.

Checking a Mechanic's Skills from Abroad

For a General Employment Permit, DETE requires that the worker has the qualifications, skills or experience the job needs. Its criteria don't ask for an Irish trade qualification, and the permit doesn't certify the mechanic's competence. That judgement is yours, so make it before you commit to the permit spend:

• What training did they complete, and where? Ask for the certificate and the course content, not just a job title from a previous employer.
• What have they actually worked on? Petrol, diesel, hybrid and electric vehicles are different jobs. If your workshop services hybrids or EVs, ask specifically about high-voltage safety training.
• Which diagnostic equipment and which manufacturers? A dealership technician trained on one marque's system may need time on another.
• Can they do the work in front of you? A video call walking through a fault-finding scenario, or a practical test, tells you more than a CV.
• Will they need to drive customer vehicles? If road tests are part of the job, check the licence position with the NDLS before you rely on it.

We screen candidates against your spec before you see them, but that doesn't replace your own technical interview.

What It Costs

The government fee for a General Employment Permit of more than 6 months and up to 24 months is €1,000. If the application is refused, 90% of the fee is refunded. When the employer is the applicant, the permit fee is the employer's cost. Section 55 of the Employment Permits Act 2024 makes it an offence to deduct it from the worker's pay or to seek to recover it from them, and the same goes for recruitment costs.

On top of that come the Labour Market Needs Test advertising, a recruitment fee if you use an agency, and any relocation support you choose to offer. Our full cost breakdown goes through each line. Our own fee is agreed with you up front and isn't due until your mechanic starts.

What We Do, and What We Cannot Promise

Motor mechanics are one of the roles we recruit for. Here's what that means in practice for a garage:

• We check the quota position and the latest DETE notices before you spend anything on advertising, and again before submission.
• We get the title and duties right, so a workshop supervisor doesn't go in as an ineligible garage manager.
• We run the Labour Market Needs Test and the permit application, with the candidate and documents lined up so nothing waits once the 28 days are up.
• We screen candidates against your spec before you see them, then you interview.

What we cannot do is tell you how many of the 1,000 permits are left, or promise the quota will still be open when your application is decided. Nobody outside DETE can. What we can do is keep you from advertising into a pool DETE has already flagged, and make sure your application is in the queue as early as the rules allow.

If you're weighing up a mechanic hire from abroad, talk to us before you start the advert. We'll tell you whether the role qualifies, which quota it falls under, and what the current position is.

Frequently asked questions