Licensed recruitment of skilled Filipino professionals for Irish employers. Your company is the direct employer — we run selection in Manila, the Irish permit process and the Philippine exit formalities end to end. From 1 worker.
Ireland's General Employment Permit is one of the most legible routes in Europe — €36,605 from 1 March 2026, a 28-day Labour Market Needs Test, about five weeks at DETE — and the Philippines is its second-largest source country. What decides a hire is the occupation list in force: the May 2026 review opened steel fixers, curtain wallers and concrete pump operators without quota and set quotas for mechanics, body repairers, butchers, dairy and meat operatives, care workers. These guides cover the process, the lists and quotas, the trades that work, dairy and meat, healthcare assistants and nurses, and the Philippine side through MWO London.
Every Irish project runs on the same backbone: you define the roles, headcount and start date; our own DMW-licensed agency in Manila, Prime Search, sources and trade-tests candidates; you approve the shortlist (on-site or online); and we manage the Irish permit process under your power of attorney while the Philippine side — contract verification, medical, pre-departure orientation and the Overseas Employment Certificate — runs in parallel. The employment contract is signed and verified before departure; your new employee lands, completes local onboarding and clocks in.
The Irish specifics below are the part that makes Ireland different from every other market we serve.
General Employment Permit (GEP) / Critical Skills Employment Permit (CSEP). Ireland's employment permit system is employer-led and selective, but construction and technical trades are now well inside it: the May 2026 refresh of the occupation lists removed curtain wallers, steel fixers, plastic lining technicians, fencing erectors and concrete pump operators from the Ineligible List, and DETE states that almost all construction occupations are now covered. Roles on the Critical Skills Occupations List use the Critical Skills Employment Permit; other eligible roles — most trades, drivers, chefs, operatives under quota — use the General Employment Permit after a 28-day Labour Market Needs Test. The GEP minimum annual remuneration is €36,605 from 1 March 2026; permits run for two years, renewable; the 50:50 rule (at least half of the workforce EEA nationals) is the condition that decides how many permits a company can hold, and we check it before anything else.
Labour-market test: 28 days of advertising (Jobs Ireland, EURES and one other platform) for General Employment Permits; exempt for Critical Skills occupations, roles paying €68,911 or more (the CSEP non-degree threshold since 1 March 2026), Enterprise Ireland/IDA-recommended roles and specified redundancy cases.
Shortage occupations: The Critical Skills Occupations List (nursing, engineering, ICT; construction planners/schedulers, geospatial surveyors, agronomists, community eye care, IP professionals and games riggers added May 2026) and the quota schemes renewed in May 2026 for hospitality, transport, automotive, meat processing, agriculture and support services; new quotas for fish filleters and seafood operatives.
Deploying a Filipino worker abroad is regulated by the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW). MWO London (Philippine Embassy in London) has jurisdiction for Ireland — employer accreditation and contract verification. The verified contract, together with the job order approved by the DMW, allows the worker to obtain the Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC) — the exit clearance without which no Filipino worker can legally leave for a job abroad. Pre-employment orientation, medical examination at a DOH-accredited medical clinic authorised to examine overseas Filipino workers and pre-departure orientation complete the sequence. Because we operate the licensed agency ourselves, this runs in parallel with the Irish permit rather than after it.
Typical gate-to-gate time for Ireland is 4–6 months from brief to arrival (28-day test, several weeks of permit processing, visa) from signed engagement to the first arrival, driven mainly by the Irish permit and the embassy appointment in Manila. Sourcing and trade testing usually take two to four weeks and are not on the critical path. We give you a written timeline for your specific role before you commit.
Sectors where Irish employers most often hire Filipino workers through us:
Our contractual partner is the employer, and it is the employer we invoice for the service. You receive an individual offer for Ireland covering sourcing, trade testing, documentation, the permit process and arrival support — there is no price list, because volumes, roles and the Irish route differ from project to project. Direct employment means the worker's wage is paid by you under your Irish contract; there is no intermediary employer.
An Irish employer briefs us on roles and headcount. Within two to four weeks we present trade-tested candidates from Manila with video assessments; the employer interviews online and approves. We file the general employment permit under power of attorney while Prime Search completes the DMW documentation. The employment contracts are signed and MWO-verified before departure; on arrival the workers complete registration and local onboarding and start on the floor — with our team reachable for the first months of integration. Whether the project is one specialist or a full shift, the mechanics are identical.
Yes — construction trades are eligible for the General Employment Permit, and the May 2026 update removed the last envelope and structural gaps (curtain wallers, steel fixers). General construction labourers remain the exception; we screen each role against the current Ineligible List before sourcing.
At company level you must employ at least as many EEA nationals as non-EEA nationals after the hires. A company with 40 EEA staff can hold up to 40 permits; a company with 15 cannot hold 30. We size the programme to your headcount, in waves.
Ireland has operated quotas for healthcare assistants and home carers; quota status changes, so we check the current position first.
Several weeks at DETE once the 28-day Labour Market Needs Test is complete; four to six months from brief to arrival including the visa and Philippine formalities.
Strongly — Filipino candidates' English is a major reason Irish employers choose them, and Safe Pass and site inductions run in English.