Ireland Employment Guide: Contracts, Leave and Ending Employment

Summary:

• Ten core terms of employment must be given in writing within 5 days of the start date, and the remaining terms within one month.
• Probation is capped at 6 months (12 in exceptional cases), and protection against unfair dismissal generally starts after 12 months’ service.
• Employees get at least 4 working weeks of annual leave, 10 public holidays and 5 days of statutory sick leave a year, plus statutory family leave.
• Since 7 March 2024, every employee can request remote working, and parents and carers can request flexible working.
• Most non-EEA hires need an employment permit; salary thresholds rose on 1 March 2026 and will keep rising to 2030.

Irish employment law comes from Acts of the Oireachtas, EU directives and codes of practice issued by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), the body that inspects employers and hears most employment complaints. This guide follows the employee lifecycle, from recruitment to the end of employment, and sets out what the law requires at each stage. It covers employment law only. Employer costs, payroll taxes and pension contributions are covered on our Ireland payroll and employer of record pages.

Hiring in Ireland follows five steps: decide who will be the legal employer, confirm the candidate’s right to work, issue the written terms within 5 days of the start date, register the employment for payroll before the first payday, and have the procedures the law requires ready on day one. A candidate from outside the EEA usually also needs an employment permit before starting.

1. Decide who will be the legal employer. A company can employ through its own Irish entity, register as an employer in Ireland without one, or hire through an employer of record in Ireland, which becomes the legal employer and runs payroll locally while the client directs the day-to-day work.
2. Confirm the right to work. Irish and other EEA citizens, Swiss citizens and UK citizens can work in Ireland without a permit. Other candidates need an employment permit or an immigration permission that allows them to work (see the permits section below).
3. Issue the written terms. The core terms of employment must be in writing within 5 days of the start date, and the remaining terms within one month.
4. Register the employment for payroll. Irish payroll is reported to Revenue in real time, so the employer registration and the employee’s details must be in place before the first payment. Payroll, employer PRSI and pension auto-enrolment are explained on our Ireland payroll page.
5. Have the required procedures ready. Employees must receive written grievance and disciplinary procedures at the start of employment, and written notice of the procedure the employer will follow before any dismissal within 28 days. Every employer also needs a written safety statement based on a risk assessment, and employers with 50 or more employees must run internal channels for reporting wrongdoing under the Protected Disclosures Acts.

Equality law applies from the first job advert. Employers cannot treat candidates less favourably on any of nine protected grounds, should collect only the personal data the role needs, and can use Garda vetting only for roles that involve children or vulnerable people. Every hire needs a right-to-work check, and EU pay transparency rules will add duties on salary information.

The Employment Equality Acts 1998 to 2015 protect job applicants as well as employees. Recruitment, selection, promotion and terms of employment cannot be decided on any of the nine protected grounds:

• Gender, including transgender people
• Civil status
• Family status
• Sexual orientation
• Religion, including having no religion
• Age
• Disability
• Race, including colour, nationality and ethnic origin
• Membership of the Traveller community

In practice, this means job adverts, application forms and interview questions should focus on the requirements of the role. Questions about family plans, age or religion can support a discrimination claim even if the answer played no part in the decision. Employers must also take reasonable measures to give people with a disability access to employment, unless those measures would place a disproportionate burden on the employer.

Directive (EU) 2023/970 on pay transparency requires employers to tell candidates the starting pay or pay range for a role and bars them from asking about a candidate’s pay history. Member States had to transpose it by 7 June 2026. Ireland missed that date, and at the time of writing (October 2026) the Irish legislation on these pre-employment rules has not been enacted. Employers recruiting in Ireland should still plan for it. Our article on European pay transparency sets out what the Directive requires.

Under the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012, an organisation cannot employ anyone to carry out relevant work or activities with children or vulnerable persons without a vetting disclosure from the National Vetting Bureau. For other roles, Garda vetting is not available as a general pre-employment check.

The Criminal Justice (Spent Convictions and Certain Disclosures) Act 2016 also limits what candidates have to disclose. A single conviction can become spent once 7 years have passed, provided the person was at least 18 when the offence was committed, the sentence was not an excluded one and it has been served. Spent convictions do not have to be disclosed for most jobs, although separate disclosure rules apply to Garda vetting for relevant work.

Recruitment data is personal data under the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. Employers need a lawful basis for each check, must tell candidates how their data is used, and should keep unsuccessful applications only for as long as they have a clear reason to, such as defending a possible discrimination claim.

Irish law does not require the whole contract to be in writing, but it does require a written statement of terms. Ten core terms must be given within 5 days of the start date and the remaining terms within one month. Probation cannot normally last more than 6 months, fixed-term employees must be treated like comparable permanent staff, and zero-hours contracts are banned in most cases.

Under the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018, as updated by the European Union (Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions) Regulations 2022, the employer must give the employee the following in writing within 5 days of starting:

• The full names of the employer and the employee
• The address of the employer
• The place of work, or a statement that the employee works at various places or can choose where to work
• The date the employment started
• The job title, grade or nature of the work
• The expected duration of a temporary contract, or the end date of a fixed-term contract
• The rate or method of calculating pay, and the pay reference period
• The number of hours the employer reasonably expects the employee to work per normal working day and per normal working week
• The duration and conditions of any probation period
• Any terms relating to hours of work, including overtime

The rest of the statement must follow within one month of the start date. It covers pay intervals, paid leave (including annual leave and public holidays), sick pay, pension arrangements, notice periods, any collective agreements that affect the job, training the employer provides and, where the work pattern is mostly unpredictable, the guaranteed hours and the minimum notice of a work assignment. The employer must sign and date the statement and keep a copy for the duration of the employment and for at least one year after it ends. The employee does not have to sign it.

A probation period cannot exceed 6 months. In exceptional circumstances it can be extended to a maximum of 12 months, for example where it is in the employee’s interest or where the employee was on extended sick leave during probation. The Unfair Dismissals Acts do not apply to a dismissal during a probation or training period of up to one year, as long as the contract is in writing and states the period. That exclusion does not cover dismissals connected with pregnancy, trade union membership or statutory family leave, and a dismissal for misconduct during probation still requires fair procedures.

The Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003 requires employers to treat fixed-term employees no less favourably than comparable permanent employees unless the difference can be objectively justified. The employee must be told in writing what condition ends the contract, informed about permanent vacancies and, where possible, given access to training. A renewed fixed-term contract cannot start a new probation period.

Successive fixed-term contracts cannot run for more than 4 years in total. If the employer wants the employee to stay after that, the contract becomes one of indefinite duration, unless there are objective grounds for another fixed term. A single fixed-term contract longer than 4 years is allowed.

Zero-hours contracts are banned except for work of a genuinely casual nature or work in emergency situations. An employee whose contract does not reflect the hours they actually work can ask to be placed in a band of hours based on their average over the previous 12 months, and the employer must place them in that band within 4 weeks unless a statutory exception applies. Employers also cannot stop an employee from taking a second job unless the restriction is proportionate and based on objective grounds, such as health and safety, business confidentiality or conflicts of interest, and the reasons are given in writing.

No statute regulates non-compete or non-solicitation clauses in Ireland. Courts treat them as restraints of trade and enforce them only where they protect a legitimate business interest and are reasonable in duration, geography and scope. A clause that goes further than necessary is likely to be unenforceable.

The Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 limits the average working week to 48 hours, sets minimum breaks and rest periods, and requires employers to keep records of hours worked for 3 years. There is no statutory overtime premium, but Sunday work must be compensated. Since 7 March 2024, any employee can request remote working, and parents and carers can request flexible working.

The 48-hour limit is an average, so individual weeks can be longer. The averaging period is 4 months for most employees and 6 months for some sectors, including security, hospitals, agriculture and businesses with seasonal peaks such as tourism. A 12-month period is possible under an agreement approved by the Labour Court. Time spent on annual leave, sick leave and statutory family leave does not count towards the 48 hours.

• A 15-minute break after 4 hours and 30 minutes of work
• A 30-minute break after 6 hours, which can include the first 15-minute break
• 11 consecutive hours of rest in every 24 hours
• 24 consecutive hours of rest in every 7 days, following a daily rest period (or two 24-hour rest periods in the following week)

Breaks cannot be placed at the end of the working day. These rules also apply when employees work from home, and the duty to make sure they are respected sits with the employer. Night workers, meaning employees who normally work at least 3 hours between midnight and 7am, cannot work more than an average of 8 hours in 24, and no more than 8 hours in any 24 if the work involves special hazards or heavy physical or mental strain.

Irish law does not set an overtime rate, so any overtime premium depends on the contract or a collective agreement. Sunday work is different: unless the pay already reflects it, an employee who works on a Sunday is entitled to a reasonable allowance, a reasonable increase in pay, reasonable paid time off, or a combination of these.

Employers must keep records of the days and hours each employee works, leave taken and any extra pay for public holidays, either electronically or on the WRC’s OWT1 form. Records must be kept for 3 years, WRC inspectors can examine them, and failing to keep them is an offence that carries a fine of up to €1,900.

The Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023 gives every employee the right to request remote working and gives parents of children under 12 (or under 16 where the child has a disability or long-term illness) and carers the right to request flexible working, such as reduced hours or compressed weeks. The WRC’s Code of Practice on the Right to Request Flexible Working and Remote Working sets out how requests must be handled:

• Employees can request from their first day, but the arrangement can only start after 6 months of continuous service.
• The request must be in writing and made at least 8 weeks before the proposed start date.
• The employer must reply within 4 weeks and can extend that by up to 8 weeks if it needs more time to assess the request.
• The decision must weigh the employer’s needs, the employee’s needs and the Code of Practice. A refusal must be given in writing with reasons.
• An approved arrangement can be ended if it substantially affects the business, but only after giving the employee 7 days to make representations and at least 4 weeks’ notice of the return date.

The right is a right to request, not a right to work remotely. An employee who believes a request was not handled in line with the Act and the Code can complain to the WRC within 6 months.

Employees in Ireland are entitled to at least 4 working weeks of paid annual leave, 10 public holidays and 5 days of statutory sick leave a year. Statutory family leave covers maternity, paternity, parent’s, parental, adoptive and carer’s leave, and short periods of leave are available for family emergencies, medical care and domestic violence.

The statutory entitlement is 4 working weeks a year. It is calculated in one of three ways, whichever gives the employee the most: 4 working weeks for a leave year in which the employee works at least 1,365 hours, one-third of a working week for each month with at least 117 hours worked, or 8% of hours worked up to a maximum of 4 working weeks. Part-time employees usually accrue on the 8% method.

The statutory leave year runs from 1 April to 31 March, although many employers use the calendar year. Leave should be taken within the leave year or, with the employee’s agreement, within the following 6 months. Leave keeps accruing during certified sick leave and most statutory family leave, and payment instead of leave is only allowed when employment ends.

Ireland has 10 public holidays a year, including St Brigid’s Day, which was added in 2023. For each public holiday an employee qualifies for, the employer chooses one of the following: a paid day off on the holiday, a paid day off within a month, an extra day of annual leave, or an extra day’s pay. Full-time employees qualify immediately, and part-time employees qualify once they have worked at least 40 hours in the 5 weeks before the holiday. A public holiday that falls on a weekend does not move to the next working day by law, although employees still receive the benefit for it.

The Sick Leave Act 2022 gives employees 5 days of statutory sick leave a year, after 13 weeks of continuous service and with a medical certificate from the first day of absence. Unused days do not carry over. The planned increases to 7 and then 10 days did not go ahead, and the rate of Statutory Sick Pay is covered on our Ireland payroll page.

Family leave is set by statute and protected: employees keep their job, accrue annual leave while on most types of leave, and cannot be dismissed for taking it. The main entitlements are:

At least 2 weeks of maternity leave must be taken before the due date and at least 4 weeks after the birth. Parental leave generally needs 12 months’ service and at least 6 weeks’ notice, and is taken in one block or in blocks of at least 6 weeks unless the employer agrees otherwise. Paternity leave has no service requirement and needs 4 weeks’ written notice. Parent’s leave rose from 7 to 9 weeks per parent for children born or adopted from 1 August 2024. Employers can top up State benefits through the contract, but the law does not require it.

• Force majeure leave: paid leave when the employee’s presence is urgently needed because a family member is injured or ill.
• Leave for medical care: unpaid leave, in place since 3 July 2023, to provide care for a child or another relevant person with a serious medical need.
• Domestic violence leave: 5 days of paid leave in any 12 consecutive months, in place since 27 November 2023, which can be taken without notice in an emergency.
• Jury service: employees called for jury service must be allowed to attend and are paid as normal.

Irish employers need written grievance and disciplinary procedures, given to each employee at the start of employment, and must follow fair procedures before imposing any sanction. The WRC Code of Practice on Grievance and Disciplinary Procedures (S.I. No. 146 of 2000) sets the standard: put the allegations to the employee, allow a response and representation, decide impartially and provide an internal appeal.

The Code reflects the principles of natural justice that the WRC and the courts apply in dismissal cases. The employee must be told the details of the allegations, be given a fair opportunity to respond, be allowed to be represented, and receive a fair and impartial decision that takes their representations into account. Depending on the case, the allegations may need to be set out in writing, the source identified and the employee allowed to question witnesses. Under the Code, a representative is a colleague of the employee’s choice or a registered trade union, not an outside person or body.

The Code lists the sanctions an employer can use: an oral warning, a written warning, a final written warning, suspension without pay, transfer to another task or section, demotion, other action short of dismissal, and dismissal. Steps are normally progressive, although serious misconduct can justify dismissal at an earlier stage. Warnings should be removed from the employee’s record after a specified period, and the employee should be told when this happens.

A dismissal for poor performance is treated as a dismissal on the ground of competence. The employer needs to have told the employee what standard the job requires, explained through a formal process where the employee is falling short, set improvements that are achievable, and allowed a reasonable time to make them. If the problems continue, a final warning should state that dismissal is likely.

The Protected Disclosures Act 2014, as amended in 2022, protects workers who report wrongdoing. Private sector employers with 50 or more employees must have formal internal reporting channels and procedures, and penalising a worker for making a protected disclosure is unlawful. A dismissal for making a protected disclosure can lead to compensation of up to 5 years’ pay, compared with 2 years in other unfair dismissal cases.

An open-ended contract can be ended by either side with notice. The employer’s statutory minimum notice rises from 1 to 8 weeks with service, and employees with 13 weeks’ service must give at least 1 week. After 12 months’ service, a dismissal is presumed unfair unless the employer shows fair grounds and fair procedures. Redundancy also needs a genuine reason and fair selection.

The Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act 1973 sets the minimum notice period an employer must give an employee with at least 13 weeks of continuous service. A contract can provide for longer notice, and an employee can agree to accept pay instead of working the notice.

Employees with at least 13 weeks’ service must give at least one week’s notice, or more if the contract requires it. On termination, the employee must be paid for annual leave earned but not taken, and an employee whose employment ends in the week before a public holiday, after at least 4 weeks’ work, is entitled to an extra day’s pay for that holiday.

Under the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977 to 2015, every dismissal is presumed unfair until the employer shows it was based on one of the fair grounds: the employee’s capability, competence or qualifications, the employee’s conduct, redundancy, a legal restriction that prevents the employment continuing, or other substantial grounds. The employer also has to show that it followed fair procedures.

Employees normally need 12 months of continuous service to bring an unfair dismissal claim. There is no service requirement where the dismissal is connected with pregnancy or birth, trade union membership or activity, or the exercise of statutory leave rights. An employee can ask for a written statement of the reasons for dismissal, which the employer should provide within 14 days.

Complaints go to the WRC within 6 months of the dismissal, a limit that can be extended by a further 6 months for reasonable cause. The WRC can order reinstatement, re-engagement or compensation for financial loss of up to 104 weeks’ remuneration. Where the employee lost nothing financially, compensation is limited to 4 weeks’ pay. An employee who resigns because of the employer’s conduct can claim constructive dismissal.

Redundancy arises when a role is no longer needed, for example because the business closes, moves or reorganises. Selection must be fair, objective and applied consistently, using an agreed method such as last in, first out, voluntary redundancy or a scoring system based on job-related criteria. Selecting someone on one of the nine discriminatory grounds, or because of pregnancy or trade union activity, makes the dismissal unfair.

Employees with at least 104 weeks of continuous service are entitled to a statutory redundancy payment of 2 weeks’ pay for each year of service plus 1 additional week, with weekly pay capped at €600 for the calculation. During the last 2 weeks of the notice period, an employee being made redundant is entitled to reasonable paid time off to look for work.

The Protection of Employment Act 1977 applies extra rules when, within any 30 consecutive days, an employer makes redundant:

• At least 5 employees in an establishment that normally employs more than 20 and fewer than 50
• At least 10 employees where it normally employs 50 to 99
• At least 10% of the workforce where it normally employs 100 to 299
• At least 30 employees where it normally employs 300 or more

The employer must start consultations with employee representatives at least 30 days before the first dismissal, covering ways to avoid or reduce the redundancies and the selection criteria. It must also notify the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment at least 30 days before the first redundancy takes effect, with the information required by S.I. No. 324 of 2024.

Ireland has no single statutory retirement age for the private sector. Since 29 June 2026, the Employment (Contractual Retirement Ages) Act 2025 lets an employee whose contract sets a retirement age below the State pensionable age notify the employer that they do not consent to retire at that age. The notice must be given between 3 months and one year before the contractual retirement date. The employer can then only enforce the retirement age if it is objectively and reasonably justified by a legitimate aim, and must give a reasoned written reply within one month.

Irish and other EEA citizens, Swiss citizens and UK citizens can work in Ireland without a permit. Most other nationals need an employment permit from the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment before they start, unless their immigration permission already allows them to work. The main permits are the Critical Skills Employment Permit for in-demand roles and the General Employment Permit, which needs a labour market needs test.

The Employment Permits Act 2024, in force since 2 September 2024, is the current framework. Each work permit type has a minimum annual salary. The thresholds below apply from 1 March 2026 and will rise in further steps to 2030, so check the current figure before applying.

For a General Employment Permit, the employer must first try to fill the role from the Irish and EEA labour market. That means advertising the vacancy with the Department of Social Protection’s employment services and EURES for at least 28 days, and also in a national newspaper and in a local newspaper or on a recruitment website for at least 3 days each. Since 2 September 2024 these adverts can be published online. At least half of the employer’s workforce must also be EEA nationals.

Since 2 September 2024, holders of a Critical Skills or General Employment Permit can move to a new employer after 9 months in their first job without applying for a new permit, provided they stay in the same profession, and can be promoted or transferred within the same company. Critical Skills permit holders can bring their family immediately, their spouse or partner can work without a permit, and after 21 months they can apply for Stamp 4 permission, which removes the need for a permit. General Employment Permit holders can be joined by their family after their first year.

Sources

• Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994, as amended (Revised Act)
• Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 (Revised Act)
• Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023
• Unfair Dismissals Act 1977, section 14 (Revised Act)
• Protection of Employment Act 1977, sections 6 and 9 (Revised Act)
• S.I. No. 146/2000, Code of Practice on Grievance and Disciplinary Procedures
• Employment (Contractual Retirement Ages) Act 2025 and S.I. No. 247/2026
• National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012, section 12
• Criminal Justice (Spent Convictions and Certain Disclosures) Act 2016, section 5
• Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, section 20
• Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment: employment permit salary thresholds from 1 March 2026
• Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment: notifying the Minister of collective redundancies
• Citizens Information: employment rights and conditions
• Directive (EU) 2023/970 on pay transparency