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Ireland Payroll & Employment Guide

This guide is for employers setting up a company in Ireland, opening a branch, or moving an existing team into the country. It is a reference for HR, payroll and finance teams in day to day decisions. Ireland is a common law jurisdiction, and unlike France, Belgium, the Netherlands or Italy on the continent, it has no general sectoral collective bargaining architecture. Each section therefore states the statutory floor clearly and notes that the usual advice to check your collective agreement applies only in a narrow set of sectors. 2026 is the first year in Irish payroll history in which an employee pension contribution becomes automatic and quasi mandatory. My Future Fund started on January 1, 2026. The same year the National Minimum Wage rose to EUR 14.15 an hour, PRSI Class A rates changed on October 1, 2026, and Critical Skills Permit thresholds were updated. These three alone make a payroll setup built on 2025 parameters produce wrong results in 2026.

12
pages: 9
chapters: 2.348
words: EUR
currency

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At a glance

At a Glance

11.40%
PRSI Class A employer upper-band rate from Oct 2026: EUR 14.15
National Minimum Wage per hour, age 20+: 1 Jan 26
Pension auto-enrolment (My Future Fund) start date: No CBA
No general sectoral collective-bargaining wage floor

What's in the guide

9 chapters, 12 pages

The opening summary of each chapter is below. Full text, tables and rates are in the PDF.

Setting Up and Doing Business

Legal form choices, registration steps and the EOR alternative.

Any structure that employs staff in Ireland must be registered as a PAYE employer with Revenue before work begins. Company registration runs through the Companies Registration Office, and most foreign investors choose the LTD form, which carries no minimum capital requirement. Employers who want to hire without forming a legal entity can use the EOR model or register directly as an employer.

Working Conditions and Leave Entitlements

Maximum working time, rest, annual leave and sick leave rules.

The framework for working time, rest and leave is the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997. The maximum weekly working time is 48 hours and an employee cannot opt out of this limit, the opt-out mechanism available in the United Kingdom does not exist in Ireland. For overtime, no statutory premium rate is set at all, the rate depends on the individual contract.

Tax and Social Security

Income tax, USC bands and PRSI class rates.

Income tax is withheld at source under PAYE. The employer receives a Revenue Payroll Notification for each employee and withholds accordingly. USC is a separate tax with its own band structure. PRSI contributions depend on the employee's class, most private sector employees sit in Class A, and the rates rose on October 1, 2026.

Payroll Operations

PAYE Modernisation reporting, payment deadlines and record retention.

Payroll runs in EUR, monthly payroll is the most common model in the private sector and payment is made by bank transfer. Since 2019 real-time reporting has applied under PAYE Modernisation. The employer reports gross pay, deductions and start or leave data to Revenue on or before every payment date, and the P35, P45 and P60 year-end forms have been abolished.

Hiring and Termination

Probation, notice periods, dismissal procedure and redundancy pay.

For a new hire, the employer must already be registered as a PAYE employer before work starts and must collect a PPSN and request an RPN for each employee. The Terms of Employment Act 1994 requires two staged written notices. Core terms are due within 5 working days of starting, and all remaining terms within 1 month. Probation is capped at 6 months and can be extended to 12 months in exceptional cases.

Compensation and Benefits

Pay floors, the My Future Fund contribution schedule and benefit exemptions.

Ireland has no general or automatic annual pay increase obligation. Outside the National Minimum Wage, pay is not indexed the way the French SMIC is. There is no statutory 13th month or Christmas bonus. The most critical change of 2026 is the My Future Fund pension auto-enrolment system, which started on January 1, 2026.

Visas and Work Permits

EU free movement, the Common Travel Area and work permit thresholds.

Nationals of the EU, the EEA and Switzerland can work in Ireland without a work permit, they only need a PPSN. The Common Travel Area with the United Kingdom, in force since 1922, is entirely separate from EU free movement and was not affected by Brexit. Third country nationals need a work permit from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

Practical Notes and Common Pitfalls

The absence of a collective bargaining floor and audit risks.

Ireland's most defining structural feature is the absence of a general, binding sectoral collective bargaining architecture, unlike Belgium, the Netherlands, France or Italy. The Employment Regulation Order mechanism sets sectoral minimum pay only in limited sectors such as security services and contract cleaning, outside those sectors pay is set by statute and the individual contract.

Incentives and Employer Support Schemes

2026 employer support and targeted cash grants.

The standard employer PRSI burden from October 1, 2026 is 9.15% of gross pay, the lower band, or 11.40%, the upper band, with no ceiling. There is no system in Ireland that directly mirrors Turkey's SGK incentive catalogue of youth, women and disability hiring contribution reliefs and regional incentives. Support here takes the form of targeted cash grants and training subsidies rather than a general PRSI reduction.

This guide is for general information only; it is not legal advice or a complete statement of the law. The content reflects the legislation in force when it was prepared, and legislation changes. Always take country-specific professional advice on a concrete case.

With Datassist

Managing Irish Payroll

Irish payroll does not run on a single collective agreement wage table as in continental Europe, it runs on correctly engineered USC, staged PRSI rates and the pension auto-enrolment system that started in 2026. Datassist runs RPN tracking, PRSI class determination and My Future Fund compliance as a single operation for employers with staff in Ireland and reconciles the parameters against official sources in every payroll period. For companies still at the setup stage, it plans the path from choosing a legal form to the first PAYE registration within the same framework.

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