In short: DETE issued 580 employment permits against Co. Kilkenny in 2025, up 34% on 2024 in a year when the national total fell by 21%. 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 Kilkenny. Permits are decided nationally, so the application is the same wherever the agency sits.
Checked on 12 October 2026. DETE revises salary floors, fees and quotas through the year, and one notice on its website is enough to stop applications for a capped role. Contact us and we will tell you where your role stands this week, before you spend anything.
Kilkenny's employment permit numbers, 2023 to 2025
DETE publishes every year's permit decisions broken down by county. These are Kilkenny's, from its permits by county tables:
| Year | Permits issued, Kilkenny | Refused, Kilkenny | Kilkenny refusal rate | National refusal rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 491 | 24 | 4.7% | 4.8% |
| 2024 | 433 | 30 | 6.5% | 5.9% |
| 2025 | 580 | 55 | 8.7% | 10.0% |
Kilkenny went against the national trend in 2025. Permits issued across Ireland dropped from 39,390 to 31,044, while Kilkenny's rose from 433 to 580. The county also takes about the share you would expect from its size: 1.9% of the country's permits in 2025, against 2.0% of its population in Census 2022. Kilkenny hires from overseas about as much as its size would predict.
Refusals are climbing. Nationally, the share of decided applications refused has doubled since 2023, to one in ten in 2025. Kilkenny's rate has risen every year, from 4.7% to 8.7%, though it is still a little below the national figure. DETE does not publish its reasons by county. A refusal costs 10% of the permit fee, which DETE keeps, plus the Labour Market Needs Test advertising and the weeks already spent. That is why we check eligibility, pay and any quota before an advert runs, rather than after.
Most Kilkenny employers on permits hire one or two people
DETE also publishes the name of every company issued a permit, with no county attached. We matched those companies against the Companies Registration Office to find the ones with a registered office in Co. Kilkenny. A registered office is not always where the work happens, and not every name matches, so treat this as the shape of the picture, not a census. Of the more than 100 matched Kilkenny employers that received a permit in 2025, about seven in ten received one or two. The biggest five took just under half of the matched permits.
So if you run a nursing home, a garage or a farm and you need one person, you are the typical Kilkenny permit employer, not the exception. The process does not get easier with volume. The same eligibility rules, salary floor and Labour Market Needs Test apply to a one-person hire as to a hundred.
Why the local pool runs out
Census 2022 counted 104,160 people in Kilkenny, 5% more than in 2016, but the number at work rose 12% to 46,196, and the county's unemployment rate fell from 13% to 8%. The population aged 65 and over grew by 21% to 17,056. Health and social work already employs more Kilkenny workers than any other sector, at over 6,300, and an ageing county needs more nurses and carers, not fewer.
Factories are competing for the same people. IDA Ireland's 15 client companies in Kilkenny employed 2,172 people in 2025, almost double the 1,087 employed by 11 client companies in 2020, according to a written Dáil answer on 20 January 2026. A Kilkenny food or engineering business looking for a maintenance electrician is up against all of them.
Which Kilkenny roles a permit can and cannot fill
- Healthcare and care: registered nurses qualify for the Critical Skills Employment Permit, which can only be applied for once NMBI has registered the nurse. Healthcare assistants qualify for a General Employment Permit, and so do care workers and home carers, inside a quota of 1,495 permits running from 13 May 2026. The salary floor for all three care roles is €16.12 an hour, which is €32,691 a year on a 39-hour week. See our nursing recruitment agency and care recruitment agency pages.
- Dairy and farming: the Census of Agriculture 2020 found the median standard output of Kilkenny's 3,573 farms was €34,525, the highest of any county. Dairy farm assistant and pig farm assistant are eligible for the General Employment Permit at the standard €36,605 floor. A general hand for tillage, drystock or sheep work is not, because that role is classed as farm worker. Horticulture workers are eligible at €32,691, within a quota of 971 from 13 May 2026. See our agriculture recruitment agency page.
- Manufacturing and engineering: maintenance technicians and fitters, electricians, CNC machinists, quality and process technicians, and engineers. Production operatives, packers and general line staff are on the ineligible list. See our manufacturing recruitment agency page.
- Hospitality: chefs, from commis level up, where the candidate has the experience DETE expects at that grade. Waiting staff, bar staff and kitchen assistants are ineligible. Hotel, restaurant, licensed-premises and catering managers reopened under quotas from 13 May 2026. See our hospitality recruitment agency page.
- Construction: qualified building craftspeople such as bricklayers and carpenters, paid at the higher of the DETE floor and the Construction Sectoral Employment Order rate, which has been €23.74 an hour for a craftsperson since 1 August 2026. Labourers and general operatives cannot be hired on a permit. See our construction recruitment agency page.
- Retail: mostly closed. Sales assistants, cashiers and shelf fillers are ineligible. Butchers and boners are the exception, within a quota of 548 from 13 May 2026.
Our 2026 guide to employment permit quotas lists every capped occupation.
How a Kilkenny hire works with us
There is no county permit office. A Kilkenny application goes to the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment through the same national process as one from Cork or Dublin, and we work by phone, WhatsApp, email and video. Monette, who owns CA Recruitment, is a Filipino national living in Ireland and recruits through her own contacts in the Philippines, looking further afield when a role is better filled elsewhere. We check the occupation, set pay at the right level, 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 we start and is not due until the worker has started. DETE's fee is separate: €1,000 for a General Employment Permit of more than six months. As for timing, a General Employment Permit hire from a visa-required country like the Philippines takes about 6 months from first call to first shift, or about 4 to 5 months where the candidate's country needs no Irish visa, such as Brazil. Every placement carries a 90-day replacement guarantee on our fee. The Work Permit Guide for Irish Employers covers each step, and our cost guide adds up the full bill.
Hiring elsewhere in the south-east? See our Waterford and Wexford pages.
Hiring in Kilkenny? Check the role first.
WhatsApp Monette on 089 416 6124 for a free eligibility check on your Kilkenny vacancy. She will tell you whether a permit is possible, which permit and pay floor apply, whether a quota is still open, and when a worker could realistically start. No obligation.
Frequently asked questions
580, according to DETE's permits by county tables for 2025, up from 433 in 2024 and 491 in 2023. DETE refused 55 Kilkenny applications in 2025, a refusal rate of 8.7% of decided applications, against 10.0% nationally. Kilkenny accounted for 1.9% of the 31,044 permits issued across Ireland in 2025.
No. We are based in Ballyporeen, Co. Tipperary, and have no office in Kilkenny city, Callan, Castlecomer, Thomastown or anywhere else in the county. We work by phone, WhatsApp, email and video call. DETE processes employment permits nationally, so where an agency is located makes no difference to the application. We hold WRC Employment Agency Licence No. EA 5444.
Yes. Dairy farm assistant is an eligible occupation for the General Employment Permit: DETE's ineligible list specifically excepts it from SOC 9111. No statutory cap applies to dairy permits at present. S.I. 643/2025 set a figure of 850 permits from 17 December 2025, but S.I. 213/2026 replaced that schedule on 13 May 2026 without a dairy row, and DETE has issued no notice closing dairy applications since. The salary floor is the standard €36,605, and a 28-day Labour Market Needs Test applies. We confirm the current position with DETE for your role before you spend anything. A general hand for drystock, sheep or tillage counts as a farm worker, which is on the ineligible list.
Yes. Registered nurses are a Critical Skills occupation, so they come in on a Critical Skills Employment Permit without a Labour Market Needs Test, and they need NMBI registration before they can work as nurses. Healthcare assistants qualify for a General Employment Permit. So do care workers and home carers, within a quota of 1,495 permits from 13 May 2026. The minimum for healthcare assistants, care workers and home carers is €32,691 a year, which is €16.12 an hour over 39 hours. Before any advertising starts, we check the care quota has not closed.
Allow about 6 months from first call to first shift 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. Where the candidate's country does not need an Irish visa, as with Brazil, the hire usually takes about 4 to 5 months. Critical Skills roles skip the Labour Market Needs Test and are faster again.