In short: Dublin employers received 14,627 of the 31,044 employment permits DETE issued in 2025, or 47%. The county's refusal rate rose from 4.8% to 8.7% in a year, yet it stayed below the national 10.0% and was one of the three lowest of any county. CA Recruitment is a WRC-licensed employment agency (Licence No. EA 5444) that recruits workers from outside the EEA, mostly from the Philippines, and handles the DETE permit for the employer. We work from Ballyporeen, Co. Tipperary, and have no Dublin office.
Checked on 12 October 2026. Permit salary floors, fees and quotas are set by regulation and DETE notice, and they move more than once a year. Tell us the role and we will check today's position for it before you spend anything.
Close to half of Ireland's employment permits go to Dublin
The figures below come from DETE's permits by county tables, which count every permit decision by the employer's county.
| Year | Permits issued, Dublin | Dublin's share of all permits issued | Refused, Dublin | Dublin refusal rate | National refusal rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 15,401 | 49.7% | 752 | 4.7% | 4.8% |
| 2024 | 19,141 | 48.6% | 967 | 4.8% | 5.9% |
| 2025 | 14,627 | 47.1% | 1,395 | 8.7% | 10.0% |
Two things stand out. The first is how evenly Dublin tracks the country. Its permits fell 24% in 2025, against a national fall of 21%, and its share of the total has slipped only slowly, from just under half to 47%. Whatever cut permit numbers in 2025 hit Dublin about as hard as everywhere else.
The second is the refusals. Dublin's refusal rate was below the national rate in all three years, and in 2025 only Wexford and Kilkenny had lower rates. But a low rate on a very large number is still a lot of refused applications. DETE turned down 1,395 Dublin applications in 2025, up 85% on 2023, and they made up about four in every ten refusals in the State. A refused application loses the 10% of the fee DETE keeps, the Labour Market Needs Test advertising, and the time it took. Most refusals come down to something checkable before you apply: the occupation, the salary or the paperwork.
Dublin's permit employers: thousands of small ones, a couple of hundred big ones
DETE also publishes the name of every company issued a permit, without a county. We matched those names against the Companies Registration Office and kept the ones whose registered office is in Dublin. The caveat matters more here than anywhere: many national employers register their head office in Dublin, so some of these permits are for jobs elsewhere in Ireland. Not every name matches either, so read this as the outline of the picture.
About 3,300 matched Dublin employers received a permit in 2025. Just over half received exactly one, and roughly three in four received one or two. At the other end, a little over 200 employers each received ten or more, and between them they took more than half of the permits. No single employer dominates: the five largest took under a tenth of the total. So a Dublin employer applying for its first permit is in very large company. The typical applicant is filling one role, and the process, fee and tests are the same for it as for an employer filling fifty.
Dublin roles a permit can fill, and the ones it cannot
- Nurses: registered nurses come in on a Critical Skills Employment Permit, with no Labour Market Needs Test, and must register with NMBI before working as a nurse. Our guide to hiring nurses from overseas covers the NMBI steps.
- Care: 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 floor for all three is €16.12 an hour, which is €32,691 a year on a 39-hour week. See our care recruitment agency page.
- Restaurants and hotels: chefs from commis chef up, with the experience DETE expects at each grade. Waiting staff, bar staff and kitchen assistants are on the ineligible list. 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 needing a Labour Market Needs Test. Our guide to hiring a chef from overseas sets out the grades.
- Construction: qualified craft tradespeople such as bricklayers, carpenters and plasterers, at the higher of the DETE threshold and the Sectoral Employment Order rate, which has been €23.74 an hour for a craftsperson since 1 August 2026. Labourers and general site operatives are not eligible. See our construction recruitment agency page.
- Haulage and distribution: HGV drivers holding a category CE or C1E licence, or an equivalent the Road Safety Authority recognises. Van drivers, fork-lift drivers and elementary warehouse operatives are ineligible. See our logistics recruitment agency page.
- Manufacturing and maintenance: maintenance fitters, electricians, CNC machinists and technicians. Packing and general production operatives are on the ineligible list. See our manufacturing recruitment agency page.
Before any General Employment Permit is granted, at least half of your workforce must be EEA, Swiss or UK nationals. Our explainer on the 50:50 rule covers who counts and the exemptions. The 2026 quota guide lists every capped occupation.
What we do, and what you sign
The permit is decided by the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, so there is no local office to deal with, and we work with Dublin employers by phone, WhatsApp, email and video. Monette, who owns CA Recruitment, is a Filipino national living in Ireland and finds candidates through her own contacts in the Philippines, or in other countries when a role is better filled there. We confirm the occupation is eligible, set the salary at the right level, run the Labour Market Needs Test, prepare the DETE application and organise the visa and travel. Your part is to review the application and sign the employer declaration.
DETE charges €1,000 for a General Employment Permit of more than six months and up to 24 months. Our own fee is agreed in writing at the start, is due only once the worker has started, and carries a 90-day replacement guarantee. Plan on about 6 months from first call to first day for a hire from a visa-required country such as the Philippines, or about 4 to 5 months from a country whose citizens need no Irish visa, such as Brazil. Our cost guide adds up the whole bill, and the Work Permit Guide for Irish Employers walks through each stage.
Hiring in the commuter counties too? See our Kildare, Meath and Louth pages.
Hiring in Dublin? Check the role first.
WhatsApp Monette on 089 416 6124 for a free eligibility check. She will tell you whether your Dublin vacancy qualifies for a permit, which permit and salary floor apply, whether a quota is still open, and a realistic start date.
Frequently asked questions
DETE issued 14,627 employment permits to Dublin employers in 2025, 47.1% of the 31,044 issued in Ireland. That was down from 19,141 in 2024, a fall of 24%, close to the national fall of 21%. In 2023 Dublin received 15,401, just under half of all permits issued.
Yes, by rate. DETE refused 8.7% of decided Dublin applications in 2025, against 10.0% nationally, and only Wexford and Kilkenny had lower rates. Dublin's rate was 4.7% in 2023 and 4.8% in 2024, also below the national figure. In numbers, though, 1,395 Dublin applications were refused in 2025, about four in ten of all refusals in the State.
No. CA Recruitment is based in Ballyporeen, Co. Tipperary, and works with Dublin employers by phone, WhatsApp, email and video call. Employment permits are decided centrally by DETE, so no step depends on where the agency is. Our WRC Employment Agency Licence number is EA 5444.
Chefs, yes, from commis chef up, where the candidate has the experience DETE expects at that grade. Managers only within quotas set from 13 May 2026: 100 permits for hotel and accommodation managers, 200 for restaurant and catering managers, 50 for publicans and licensed-premises managers, and 50 for catering and bar managers, each needing a Labour Market Needs Test. Waiting staff, bar staff and kitchen assistants are on the ineligible list and cannot be hired on a permit.
About 6 months from the first call to the worker's first day, for a General Employment Permit hire from a visa-required country such as the Philippines. That includes the 28-day Labour Market Needs Test, DETE processing and the Irish entry visa. From a country whose citizens need no Irish visa, such as Brazil, it is usually about 4 to 5 months. Critical Skills roles such as registered nurses skip the Labour Market Needs Test.