In short: DETE issued 457 employment permits to Westmeath employers in 2025 and refused 68 applications. That refusal rate, 13.0%, was three points above the national 10.0%, and Westmeath has been above the national rate in each of the last three years. Most of the county's permits go to employers in Athlone and Mullingar, and most of those employers hire one or two people at a time. CA Recruitment is a WRC-licensed employment agency (Licence No. EA 5444). We recruit outside the EEA, mainly in the Philippines, and run the permit for the employer. We are based in Ballyporeen, Co. Tipperary, with no office in Westmeath.
Checked on 19 October 2026. DETE sets the salary floors, permit fees and occupation quotas on this page and can change any of them mid-year; a quota can close with one notice on its website. Contact us before you spend anything and we will confirm where your role stands that day.
Westmeath's permit numbers, and a refusal rate worth watching
The figures below are Westmeath's rows in DETE's permits by county tables. The refusal rate is refusals as a share of all decisions, issued plus refused.
| Year | Permits issued, Westmeath | Refused, Westmeath | Westmeath refusal rate | National refusal rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 391 | 21 | 5.1% | 4.8% |
| 2024 | 514 | 40 | 7.2% | 5.9% |
| 2025 | 457 | 68 | 13.0% | 10.0% |
Issued permits followed the national pattern, only more gently. Westmeath's total rose 31% in 2024, against 27% for the country, then fell 11% in 2025 while the national total fell 21%. Over the two years the county ended 17% up, twelfth of the 26 counties, and its share of every permit DETE issued went from 1.3% to 1.5%.
Refusals are the number to look at twice. They more than tripled, from 21 to 68, and the gap to the national rate widened each year until Westmeath had the eighth-highest refusal rate in the country in 2025. DETE does not break refusal reasons down by county, so the table cannot say why. It does show that a Westmeath application is more likely to be refused than the average one. A refusal costs 10% of the DETE fee, which is not refunded. The Labour Market Needs Test advertising is already spent, and so are the weeks. You can ask DETE to review a refusal, but the request has to go in within 28 days.
Athlone and Mullingar, one or two hires at a time
DETE publishes the name of every company that received a permit, though not the county. We matched those names to the Companies Registration Office and kept the companies whose registered office is in Co. Westmeath. That gave about 115 employers holding about 310 of the county's 457 permits in 2025. A registered office is not always the workplace and some names do not match, so treat what follows as a picture of proportions, not a count.
- Two towns hold most of it. Companies registered in Athlone held about 140 of the matched permits and companies in Mullingar about 110, roughly four in five between them. Moate, Castlepollard and Multyfarnham account for much of the rest.
- Small hirers, not one big one. Just over half of the matched employers received a single permit in 2025, and nearly three in four received one or two. Only five took ten or more, and together they held about a quarter of the matched total. No single employer held more than about one permit in twelve.
A county of small hirers and a high refusal rate is a combination that punishes mistakes. An employer bringing in one worker has no second application to fall back on. If the occupation code, the salary or the Labour Market Needs Test is wrong, the refusal sets the whole hire back by months. Larger employers also need to keep an eye on the 50:50 rule: DETE will not issue a permit unless at least half the firm's employees are EEA nationals, or Swiss or UK nationals, unless an exemption applies.
Westmeath's own workforce
Westmeath's population was 96,221 at Census 2022, up 8% on 2016, the same growth as the country as a whole. Employment grew faster than that: 42,077 people were at work, 19% more than in 2016, against 16% nationally. The county is also ageing quicker than average. People aged 65 and over rose by 26% to 14,369, compared with 22% across the State, which matters to every nursing home and home-care provider in the county. Non-Irish citizens were 11% of the population, a point below the national 12%. All four figures are from the CSO's Census 2022 summary results for Westmeath.
Which Westmeath roles a permit can fill
Eligibility goes by occupation code, not by sector, so two jobs in the same building can get opposite answers.
- Hotels and restaurants: chefs qualify for a General Employment Permit at set experience levels: sous, head and executive chef with five years, chef de partie with two, and commis chef with two as long as the kitchen is not a fast-food outlet. Kitchen and catering assistants, waiters and bar staff are on the Ineligible List. Hotel and accommodation managers have a quota of 100 permits from 13 May 2026. See our hospitality recruitment agency page.
- Nursing homes and home care: registered nurses qualify for a Critical Skills Employment Permit and must register with NMBI. Healthcare assistants can get a General Employment Permit, as can care workers and home carers within a quota of 1,495 permits running from 13 May 2026. The floor for these care roles is €16.12 an hour, or €32,691 a year on a 39-hour week. See our care recruitment agency page.
- Building trades: bricklayers, carpenters and other qualified building craftspeople are eligible. They must be paid at least the DETE threshold or the Construction Sectoral Employment Order craft rate, whichever is higher; that rate has been €23.74 an hour since 1 August 2026. General labourers are not eligible. See our construction recruitment agency page.
- Dairy and pig farms: a general farm worker cannot be hired on a permit, because the occupation is on the Ineligible List. Dairy farm assistant and pig farm assistant are named exceptions, with the standard €36,605 minimum. See our agriculture recruitment agency page.
- Food plants: general production and packing operatives are ineligible. DETE's notice of 26 August 2026 says the meat processing operative quota is oversubscribed and asks employers not to submit new applications, so that role is closed for now. Butchers and boners have a quota of 548. See our manufacturing recruitment agency page.
The full list of capped roles is in our 2026 guide to employment permit quotas.
How a Westmeath hire works
Applications from Athlone and the Midlands go into the same national system as one from Dublin or Cork. The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment decides them centrally, so we do the work by phone, WhatsApp, email and video. Monette owns CA Recruitment. She is a Filipino national who lives in Ireland, and she recruits through her own network in the Philippines and in other countries when a role is better filled from elsewhere. We confirm the occupation code and salary, run the Labour Market Needs Test, prepare the permit application and organise the visa and travel. Your part is to check the application and sign the employer declaration.
We agree our fee with you in writing at the start, and you pay it only once the worker has started. The DETE fee is on top of that: €1,000 for a General Employment Permit lasting more than six months. Every placement comes with our 90-day replacement guarantee. Expect about 6 months from the first call to the first shift for a Filipino candidate, who needs an Irish visa, and about 4 to 5 months for a candidate from a visa-free country such as Brazil. Each step is set out in the Work Permit Guide for Irish Employers, and the cost guide totals the full bill.
Hiring on the other side of the Shannon or further east as well? See our Galway, Meath and Cavan pages, or our main overseas recruitment agency page.
Hiring in Westmeath? Check the role before the advert goes up.
WhatsApp Monette on 089 416 6124 for a free eligibility check. She will tell you whether the job can go on a permit, which salary floor applies, whether a quota is still open, and when a worker could realistically start.
Frequently asked questions
DETE issued 457 employment permits to Westmeath employers in 2025. That was 11% down on the 514 issued in 2024, about half the 21% fall nationally, and 17% up on the 391 issued in 2023. Westmeath's share of all permits issued rose from 1.3% to 1.5% over those two years.
Yes, slightly, and in each of the last three years. In 2025 DETE refused 68 Westmeath applications and issued 457, a refusal rate of 13.0% against 10.0% nationally, the eighth-highest of the 26 counties. In 2023 the gap was small, 5.1% against 4.8%. DETE does not say why by county. If an application is refused, DETE refunds 90% of the fee, and the employer can ask for the decision to be reviewed within 28 days.
Chefs, yes; kitchen porters and front-of-house staff, no. Commis chefs with at least two years' experience can get a General Employment Permit if the kitchen is not a fast-food outlet, and so can chefs de partie with two years and sous, head and executive chefs with five. Kitchen and catering assistants, waiters and bar staff are on DETE's Ineligible List of Occupations.
No. We are based in Ballyporeen, Co. Tipperary, and have no office or address in Westmeath. We recruit for Westmeath employers by phone, WhatsApp, email and video call, and DETE decides every application centrally, so the location of the agency makes no difference to the outcome. Our WRC Employment Agency Licence number is EA 5444.
Plan on about 6 months from the first call to the worker's first shift when the candidate needs an Irish entry visa, as Filipino candidates do. That includes the 28-day Labour Market Needs Test, DETE processing and the visa. For a candidate from a visa-free country such as Brazil, about 4 to 5 months is realistic.