How Irish Employers Choose an Overseas Recruitment Agency (2026)

What You're Actually Deciding

Choosing an overseas recruitment agency isn't really a choice about who sends you CVs. It's a choice about who manages a six-month legal process that ends with a worker relocating to Ireland to work for you.

Get it right and the role fills, the paperwork is handled, and you barely touch the permit system. Get it wrong and you're weeks in before you discover the agency doesn't manage the DETE application, or that the fee you agreed didn't include the parts that matter, or that the worker they found has changed their mind and there's no replacement coming.

Most employers comparing agencies focus on the wrong things — price first, everything else second. This guide is about what actually separates an agency that completes placements from one that leaves you holding a half-finished application.

The Two Engagement Models

Overseas recruitment agencies fall into two broad camps, and the difference decides how much of the work lands back on your desk.

CV supply

Some agencies source candidates and hand you a shortlist. That's where their job ends. You handle the employment permit application, the Labour Market Needs Test, the visa coordination, and the compliance. The agency found you a person; the process is yours to run.

This can work if you already have an in-house team that knows the DETE system. Most Irish SMEs don't. A farm manager in Tipperary or a nursing home operator in Limerick has no reason to know how the General Employment Permit process works — and shouldn't have to.

Fully managed

A managed agency sources the candidate and then runs the entire process to arrival: the permit application, the LMNT where it applies, the visa, and the coordination of travel. You interview and approve the worker; they handle the machinery.

For most employers, this is the only model that makes sense. The reason you're going overseas in the first place is that you couldn't fill the role locally — you don't have spare capacity to become a part-time immigration caseworker on top of that. When you compare agencies, the first question is which model they actually offer. Plenty market themselves as full-service and quietly stop at the shortlist.

What to Compare — The Checklist

Once you know an agency runs a managed service, these are the points that actually separate them.

• Legality in the source country. To place workers from the Philippines, an agency must be licensed by the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) — the government body that replaced the POEA. No licence, no legal placement. This is the first thing to verify, not the last.
• DETE permit expertise. The agency should know the difference between the General Employment Permit and the Critical Skills route, when the Labour Market Needs Test applies, and how the 50:50 rule affects your specific business. Vague answers here are a warning.
• Sector track record in Ireland. Placing a dairy worker on a farm is not the same as placing a healthcare assistant in a care home. The roles, the permit notes, and the pay rules differ. Ask who they've actually placed in your sector, in Ireland.
• Fee structure. How much, when it's paid, and what's included. Covered in detail below.
• A written guarantee. What happens if the worker leaves shortly after arriving. Also below.
• Communication. You'll be working with this agency for months. If they're slow to reply while trying to win your business, that won't improve once they have it.

For a deeper Filipino-specific version of this checklist — including DMW accreditation and what to ask before signing — see our guide on choosing a Filipino recruitment partner.

How the Fees Should Work

There's no standard price for overseas recruitment. Agencies quote per placement, usually after they understand the role and the sector. That's normal. What isn't normal — and what should make you cautious — is being asked for a large sum before any work has started.

A genuine managed agency carries the risk with you. That means the structure of the fee matters more than the headline number:

• The agency fee is separate from the permit and visa costs. The DETE permit fee, the visa fee, and the worker's travel are real costs that exist no matter which agency you use. A clear agency tells you what its own fee is and what those third-party costs are, separately. An agency that blends everything into one number so you can't see the breakdown is hiding something.
• You shouldn't pay a large fee before the work is done. Ask what's payable upfront and what's tied to the placement actually completing. If most of the money is due before a candidate is even confirmed, the agency is carrying none of the risk — you are.
• Get the full cost in writing. Including what's included and what isn't. A verbal "it's around this much" is not a quote.

At CA Recruitment, employers don't pay a large upfront fee to start the process — the model is built so the agency shares the risk of the placement completing. Ask any agency you're comparing to put their structure beside that and see how it looks.

Who Manages the Permit — And Who Holds It

This trips up employers constantly, so it's worth being precise.

A DETE employment permit is granted for a specific worker, to work for a specific employer, in a named role. You are the employer named on it. The permit is tied to your business and that worker — not to the recruitment agency. If you later part ways with the agency, the permit doesn't leave with them.

What a good agency does is prepare and manage the application on your behalf: the paperwork, the Labour Market Needs Test where it's required, the correct salary threshold for the role, and the submission to DETE. They own the process. You own the legal relationship with the worker.

This is exactly why permit expertise is worth paying for. The application is detailed, the salary rules vary by sector — construction trades are governed by Sectoral Employment Order rates, healthcare assistants by an hourly-rate minimum — and a mistake means a refusal after weeks of waiting. An agency that does this every week gets it right the first time. For the full picture of how the process works, our Work Permit Guide for Irish Employers walks through it start to finish.

What a Guarantee Should Cover

A replacement guarantee tells you how much confidence an agency has in its own placements. But the wording matters, and this is where employers get misled.

A meaningful guarantee covers the situations that are genuinely outside your control — the worker leaving early, or being dismissed for gross misconduct within a set window. It does not, and honestly cannot, cover everything. No agency can refund the DETE permit fee, the visa cost, or the worker's travel — those are paid to third parties and gone once spent. A guarantee that promises to make you whole "for any reason" or "if it doesn't work out" is overpromising, and an overpromise is a reason to be careful, not reassured.

CA Recruitment offers a 90-day guarantee: if the worker leaves within the first 90 days, or is dismissed for gross misconduct in that window, we source a replacement. It covers our recruitment fee — not the DETE, visa, or travel costs, which no agency controls. That's a real guarantee with honest limits. Compare it against whatever the agency in front of you is offering, and read the terms, not the headline.

Questions That Expose a Weak Agency

You learn more from how an agency answers a hard question than from its brochure. Put these to anyone you're considering:

1. "Are you licensed to place workers from this country, and can you show me?" For Filipino workers, the answer should name the DMW and be able to prove it.
2. "Do you manage the full DETE permit application, or do I do that part?" This separates managed agencies from CV suppliers in one question.
3. "What's your fee, what's payable upfront, and what's separate from the permit and visa costs?" Watch for blending and vagueness.
4. "What does your guarantee actually cover, and what doesn't it cover?" An honest answer includes the limits.
5. "Who have you placed in my sector, in Ireland?" Generic overseas-recruitment answers here mean generic overseas-recruitment service.
6. "What's a realistic timeline for my role?" A confident agency says around six months and explains why. An agency promising a few weeks doesn't understand the process — or is willing to mislead you to win the work.

Red Flags

Some signals are worth walking away over:

• A large fee demanded before any work starts. The agency should share the risk, not offload it onto you.
• "Guaranteed in a few weeks." The DETE process alone doesn't move that fast. This is either ignorance or a sales line.
• No proof of licensing in the source country. For Filipino placements, no DMW licence means the placement isn't legal. Non-negotiable.
• A guarantee that covers "anything." It can't, so it won't. Read what it actually says.
• Won't put the cost in writing. If they won't commit the number to paper before you sign, imagine how firm everything else will be.
• Slow to respond while selling. Responsiveness during the pitch is the best it will ever be.

Where CA Recruitment Fits

CA Recruitment is a fully managed agency, not a CV supplier. We source Filipino workers, and we run the entire DETE permit and visa process to the point the worker lands in Ireland and starts. Monette, who founded the agency, is a Filipino national living in Tipperary — she has been through the Irish permit system herself and has placed workers across agriculture, construction, healthcare, and hospitality.

The model is built the way this guide argues it should be: no large upfront fee, a clear fee separate from the third-party permit and visa costs, and a 90-day replacement guarantee with honest terms. If you're comparing agencies, use the checklist above on us as hard as on anyone else — that's the point of it.

Frequently Asked Questions