Yes, an Irish seafood processor can now hire a fish filleter or a seafood operative from outside the EEA (the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) on a General Employment Permit. Both roles were made eligible in May 2026 under two newly established quotas. The whole country shares 50 fish filleter permits and 100 seafood operative permits, and before you apply you must run a fresh 28-day advertising test, the Labour Market Needs Test.
With 150 places across the country, we treat the first application as the only one. Get the job title, the salary and the advert right before you apply.
Correct as of 30 October 2026. We took the quotas, salary thresholds and occupation codes below from DETE's pages and S.I. No. 213 of 2026 on that date. Neither quota had a "filled" notice on DETE's updates page that day. That page is where DETE announces a filled quota, and in August it told employers to stop applying under the meat processing quota. Get in touch and we will check the current position for your role before you spend anything on the process.
What changed in May 2026
The change came through new regulations, the Employment Permits (Amendment) Regulations 2026, published as statutory instrument S.I. No. 213 of 2026 and made on 13 May 2026. It rewrote the Ineligible List of Occupations, the list of jobs the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment (DETE) will not grant a permit for, and carved out two seafood exceptions:
- Fish filleter, under code 5433, the code for people who prepare and sell fish or dress poultry. The rest of that code stays ineligible.
- Seafood operative, under code 8111 (food, drink and tobacco process operatives). Meat processor operative and computer-controlled machine (CNC) operative are the only other exceptions there.
The ineligible list sorts jobs by four-digit codes from the Standard Occupational Classification system (SOC 2010). Each code is listed with the employment it names: 8111, for example, is food, drink and tobacco process operatives. The same instrument set a cap for each new role.
50 filleters, 100 operatives, nationwide
Schedule 5 of the regulations, which sets the maximum number of permits for certain jobs, limits General Employment Permits to 50 for fish filleters and 100 for seafood operatives, both counted from 13 May 2026. That is 150 permits shared by every processor in the State.
Watch DETE's latest notices page, because that is where a closure is announced. On 26 August 2026 DETE said its 1,000-permit meat processing quota was oversubscribed and almost filled, and that applications still in the queue would be rejected once it filled. Every filled-quota notice on that page says the same thing: applications still waiting to be processed are rejected.
So the first application has to be clean. A refusal can be reviewed or the application made again, but either takes time, and a 50-permit quota may not wait for you.
Your old advert does not count
DETE has stated that for the newly established Fish Filleter and Seafood Operative quotas a new Labour Market Needs Test (LMNT) must be run. This test is the advertising stage that shows you offered the job first to workers from Ireland and the rest of the EEA (the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway). If you advertised a filleter vacancy last winter and found nobody, that advert does not carry over.
The test means advertising the vacancy for at least 28 continuous days with the Department of Social Protection's JobsIreland service, which also places it on EURES (the EU jobs network), and for 28 days on a second online jobs platform. You then have 90 days from the first day of the JobsIreland advert to apply. DETE's own arithmetic shows the effect: an LMNT started on 13 May could not support an application before 10 June 2026.
Both adverts must state the minimum annual pay, so set the salary before you advertise. An advert showing less than the permit minimum will not satisfy the test.
The salary floor
Do not assume the lower rate for meat processing applies. DETE's General Employment Permit page sets the minimum annual remuneration at generally €36,605. It lists a reduced €32,691 rate for horticulture workers, meat processor operatives, healthcare assistants and home support workers. Fish filleters and seafood operatives are not on that list.
On DETE's current wording, then, plan on at least €36,605 a year for both roles. DETE counts only two things towards it: basic salary, and health insurance paid to an insurer registered with the Health Insurance Authority. Set the basic pay high enough to reach the figure on its own.
The job title has to match
Two kinds of fish plant job still fall outside the exceptions.
- Process operatives under another title. Code 8111 covers food, drink and tobacco process operatives and stays ineligible apart from its three named exceptions. Use the title "seafood operative" and describe seafood processing duties.
- Packing and grading roles. Packing, bottling and tin-filling jobs (code 9134) and weighing, grading and sorting jobs (code 8134) are both ineligible, with no seafood exception.
DETE asks for a full description of the proposed employment, and both adverts must describe the employment too, so write the same duties in all three. If your filleters also pack at the end of a shift, say so. If they mostly pack, talk to us before you advertise.
Half your staff must be EEA nationals
DETE will not issue a General Employment Permit unless at least half your employees are EEA, Swiss or UK citizens when you apply (the EEA is the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway). DETE calls this the 50:50 rule. A plant with eight staff, four of them non-EEA nationals, meets the rule for one more application. Once that worker starts, it is five non-EEA staff out of nine, and the next application fails until another EEA national joins.
Count your payroll before you advertise. The test is run on each application, so a shortlist of three filleters may have to become one.
Sea fishers are a separate route
If you also run fishing boats, your crew fall under a different code from the two quota roles. Sea fisher in the Irish fishing fleet is a different occupation, with its own exception on the ineligible list (code 5119), and in July 2024 DETE moved the role out of a separate scheme, the Atypical Working Scheme, and into the employment permit system. The quota schedule substituted on 13 May 2026 does not list sea fishers.
Planning around your season
DETE requires an application at least 12 weeks before the proposed start date, and the 28-day advert has to finish before you can apply. DETE processes applications in date order and publishes the date it has reached for each permit type. For a seasonal peak, count back from the day you need the worker and start the advert well ahead of it.
The cost to you includes DETE's fee of €1,000 for a permit of 6 months up to 24 months. You cannot recover that fee or any other application cost from the worker, by deduction from pay or otherwise. That rule is in section 55 of the Employment Permits Act 2024. A worker on a first permit is expected to stay with you for 9 months before moving employer.
We check the quota position on the day, match the job title and duties to the right code, run the advert and manage the DETE application. If the 50:50 rule or the salary will sink the application, we tell you before you spend anything. Message Monette on WhatsApp with the role, the start date and how many staff you have, and she will tell you whether the numbers work.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, since May 2026. S.I. No. 213 of 2026 made fish filleter an exception to the Ineligible List of Occupations, so it can now get a General Employment Permit. Only 50 permits are available for the role, counted from 13 May 2026, and the employer has to run a new 28-day Labour Market Needs Test before applying.
100. Schedule 5 of the Employment Permits Regulations 2024, as substituted by S.I. No. 213 of 2026, caps General Employment Permits for seafood operatives at 100 and fish filleters at 50, both from 13 May 2026. When DETE says a quota has filled, applications still waiting in the queue are rejected.
DETE's General Employment Permit page sets the minimum at generally €36,605 a year. The reduced €32,691 rate is listed only for horticulture workers, meat processor operatives, healthcare assistants and home support workers, and seafood roles are not on that list. Basic salary and health insurance paid to an insurer registered with the Health Insurance Authority count towards the figure.
No. DETE has said a new Labour Market Needs Test must be run for the newly established Fish Filleter and Seafood Operative quotas. The vacancy has to run for 28 days on the Department of Social Protection's JobsIreland service, which shares it to EURES, and on a second online platform before you apply.
Not under that title. Food, drink and tobacco process operatives (code 8111) are still ineligible, with seafood operative carved out as an exception. Packing jobs (code 9134) and weighing, grading and sorting jobs (code 8134) are ineligible with no seafood exception at all. The job title and duties must match fish filleter or seafood operative.