In short: Cork employers were issued 2,973 employment permits in 2025, more than any county except Dublin. Cork's total fell 10% on 2024 while the national total fell 21%, so the county's share of all Irish permits rose to 9.6%. CA Recruitment is a WRC-licensed employment agency (Licence No. EA 5444) that recruits from outside the EEA, chiefly the Philippines, and runs the DETE permit from the first eligibility check to the worker's visa. We are based in Ballyporeen, Co. Tipperary, with no office in Cork.
Checked on 12 October 2026. Permit rules move during the year. On 26 August 2026 DETE asked employers to stop submitting new applications for meat processing operatives because that quota was oversubscribed (DETE notices). Contact us and we will confirm where your role stands today, before you spend money on the process.
Cork held up better than the country in 2025
These are Cork's figures from DETE's permits by county tables:
| Year | Permits issued, Cork | Refused, Cork | Cork refusal rate | National refusal rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2,613 | 123 | 4.5% | 4.8% |
| 2024 | 3,293 | 195 | 5.6% | 5.9% |
| 2025 | 2,973 | 322 | 9.8% | 10.0% |
Cork has been the second-largest permit county after Dublin in each of these three years. Its 26% rise in 2024 tracked the national rise of 27%. The two parted in 2025. Permits issued across Ireland fell by about a fifth, from 39,390 to 31,044, while Cork's fell by a tenth. Cork took 8.4% of all permits issued in 2024 and 9.6% in 2025.
Refusals: under the national rate, but rising
Cork applications have been refused slightly less often than the national average in each of the last three years. The gap is small, 0.2 to 0.3 percentage points, and the trend is the same as everywhere else. The county's refusal rate went from 5.6% in 2024 to 9.8% in 2025, and the number of refused applications reached 322, more than two and a half times the 123 refused in 2023.
DETE does not publish refusal reasons by county, so the table cannot show which roles were turned down. What a refusal costs is clear: DETE refunds 90% of the fee and keeps the rest, the 28-day Labour Market Needs Test advertising is spent, and the vacancy stays open while you start again.
Cork's permit hiring is spread across hundreds of employers
DETE also publishes the name of every company issued a permit, with no county attached. We matched the 2025 names against the Companies Registration Office and kept those whose registered address is in Co. Cork. About 750 employers matched, holding roughly 2,300 of the county's 2,973 permits. A registered address is not always where the staff work, so read this as a rough picture rather than a count. Nearly three in four of those employers (73%) received one or two permits. The five biggest held about 12% of the matched permits between them. No small group of large employers dominates permit hiring in Cork, and the typical Cork permit employer took one or two.
Roles that qualify in Cork, and roles that don't
- Pharmaceutical, medtech and food manufacturing: maintenance fitters, electricians, welders and pipefitters, CNC machinists, and technician, engineering and quality roles qualify. General production and packing operatives are on the Ineligible List of Occupations. Meat processing operative has its own quota, which DETE said was oversubscribed on 26 August 2026. See our manufacturing recruitment agency page.
- Nursing and care: registered nurses register with NMBI and then come in on the Critical Skills Employment Permit. Healthcare assistants qualify for a General Employment Permit, and so do care workers and home carers, within a quota of 1,495 permits from 13 May 2026. The salary floor for healthcare assistants, care workers and home carers is €16.12 an hour, which is €32,691 a year on a 39-hour week. See our nursing and care recruitment pages.
- Hotels and restaurants: chefs from commis level up, where the candidate has the experience DETE expects at that grade. Waiting, bar and kitchen-assistant roles are ineligible. Hotel, restaurant, licensed-premises and catering and bar managers are eligible only within quotas of 100, 200, 50 and 50 permits from 13 May 2026, each with a fresh Labour Market Needs Test. See our hospitality recruitment agency page.
- Farming: dairy farm assistant qualifies by name at the standard €36,605 minimum. A general farm hand does not. Horticulture workers qualify at €32,691 a year within a quota of 971 from 13 May 2026. See our agriculture recruitment agency page.
- Construction and haulage: qualified building craftspeople such as bricklayers and carpenters, paid at least the Construction Sectoral Employment Order rate, which has been €23.74 an hour for a craftsperson since 1 August 2026, and HGV drivers with a category CE or C1E licence or a recognised equivalent. Labourers, van drivers and fork-lift drivers are ineligible. See our construction and logistics pages.
Every capped occupation is listed in our 2026 guide to employment permit quotas.
Working with us from Cork
Permit applications go to the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, not to any local office, so we run a Cork hire by phone, WhatsApp, email and video from Ballyporeen in Co. Tipperary. Monette, who owns CA Recruitment, is a Filipino national living in Ireland and recruits through her own contacts in the Philippines, and further afield when a role is better filled elsewhere. We check the occupation, set the pay, run the Labour Market Needs Test, prepare the application and arrange the visa and travel. You review the application and sign the employer declaration.
Our fee is agreed in writing before work starts and is due only once the worker has started. DETE's own fee is separate: €1,000 for a General Employment Permit of more than six months and up to 24 months. A hire from a visa-required country such as the Philippines takes about 6 months from first call to first shift, or about 4 to 5 months from a country whose citizens need no Irish visa, such as Brazil. Each placement carries a 90-day replacement guarantee on our fee. Our cost guide adds up the full bill, and the Work Permit Guide walks through each step.
Hiring elsewhere in Munster? See our Kerry, Limerick and Waterford pages.
Hiring in Cork? Check the role first.
WhatsApp Monette on 089 416 6124 for a free eligibility check. She will tell you whether your Cork vacancy can be filled on a permit, which permit and salary floor apply, whether any quota is still open, and a realistic start date.
Frequently asked questions
DETE issued 2,973 employment permits to employers in Co. Cork in 2025, down 10% from 3,293 in 2024. The national total fell 21% over the same year, from 39,390 to 31,044, so Cork's share of all permits issued in Ireland rose from 8.4% to 9.6%. Cork has been the second-largest permit county after Dublin in each of the last three years.
No. Cork's refusal rate has been slightly below the national rate in each of the last three years: 4.5% against 4.8% in 2023, 5.6% against 5.9% in 2024 and 9.8% against 10.0% in 2025. The number of refusals still rose, from 123 in 2023 to 322 in 2025. DETE keeps 10% of the permit fee when it refuses an application.
Not at the moment. DETE's notice of 26 August 2026 says S.I. 643/2025 set a quota of 1,000 General Employment Permits for meat processing operatives, that the quota is oversubscribed, and that employers should not submit new applications. Butcher and boner roles sit under a separate quota, and we check whether it is open before any advert runs.
The skilled and technical ones: maintenance fitters, electricians, welders and pipefitters, CNC machinists, and technician, engineering and quality roles. General production and packing operatives are on DETE's Ineligible List of Occupations, whatever the plant makes. Engineers and some technical roles are on the Critical Skills Occupations List, which needs no Labour Market Needs Test.
Yes, where the role is a genuine dairy farm assistant role. Farm worker is on DETE's Ineligible List of Occupations, but dairy farm assistant is carved out of that exclusion by name and qualifies for a General Employment Permit at the standard €36,605 minimum. DETE announced a quota of 850 dairy farm assistant permits on 18 December 2025. The quota schedule was replaced on 13 May 2026 by S.I. 213/2026 without a dairy row, and DETE has published no notice closing dairy applications, so we confirm the current position with DETE before any advert runs.