Irish dairy expanded faster than its labour supply and has relied on employment permits since the first quota of 500 in 2022. The current quota — 850 dairy farm assistant permits from 18 December 2025 — comes at the full €36,605 floor and with an accommodation and language-training declaration. Filipino dairy workers are an established category on New Zealand, Israeli and Gulf farms; this page covers how an Irish farm recruits them.
DETE opened 850 General Employment Permits for dairy farm assistants on 18 December 2025, after the earlier quota closed in November. Dairy is not among the sub-standard occupations: the pay floor is the full €36,605 basic pay on a 39-hour week — €18.05 an hour, €37,544 on a 40-hour week — excluding bonuses, overtime and allowances, and the application carries the employer's declaration that suitable accommodation and training, including language training, will be provided. The Labour Market Needs Test and the 50:50 rule apply as for every General Employment Permit; farm partnerships and farm-relief services apply as employers in their own right.
Filipino dairy workers are an established category: thousands work on New Zealand's rotary and herringbone parlours, on Israeli kibbutz dairies and on Gulf mega-dairies, and the Philippine agricultural colleges and TESDA animal-husbandry programmes supply the next cohort. For Ireland we select for a grass-based, spring-calving system: milking routine and hygiene, calf rearing, heat detection, grassland and feed tasks, tractor and machinery safety, and the willingness to work early starts and calving-season hours. Candidates are briefed on the farm, the housing, the hours across the season and the net pay before they sign; references from previous dairy employers are verified.
Irish dairy's labour peak is calving, February to April; a farm that briefs us in late summer has its assistants in place for it. The sequence is the standard one — 28-day advertisement, selection in Manila, permit application at least twelve weeks before the start, visa through VFS Philippines in about eight weeks, MWO London verification and the Overseas Employment Certificate — four to six months from brief to arrival. Small farms recruit two to five assistants; farm-relief services and partnerships recruit in groups and place them regionally.
The General Employment Permit is the route for almost every trade and operative role: minimum annual remuneration of €36,605 from 1 March 2026 (basic pay on a 39-hour week, €18.05 an hour; the sub-standard rate of €32,691 applies only to healthcare assistants and home-support workers, meat processing operatives and horticulture workers), a permit fee of €1,000 for up to two years refunded at 90 % if refused, a first permit of two years renewable for three, and an application filed at least twelve weeks before the start date. Before filing, the Labour Market Needs Test: the vacancy advertised for 28 continuous days on JobsIreland (and through it EURES) and for 28 days on one other online platform, stating the job, the employer, the location, the hours and the minimum annual remuneration, with the application lodged within 90 days of the first publication. At company level at least half of the employees must be EEA nationals — the 50:50 rule — with exceptions for start-ups supported by Enterprise Ireland or IDA and for a sole employee; the Government approved proposals in May 2026 to amend the rule for health and social care, not yet law.
The permit decides family life as well as work. Critical Skills permit holders may bring their nuclear family immediately with no income test; General Employment Permit holders may apply after twelve months in the State and must meet an income test under the Family Reunification Policy of 12 June 2026 — above €30,000 gross for a spouse, and for children a net income above Working Family Payment levels, which for one child corresponds to roughly €50,200 gross. A tradesman at €36,605 can bring a spouse after a year and, in practice, not his children; we say so in Manila before anyone signs.
Recruitment runs through our own DMW-licensed agency, Prime Search Manpower Agency Inc. in Makati (licence DMW-027-LB-11182024): your company is accredited at the Migrant Workers Office in London, which covers the United Kingdom and Ireland, the job order is registered with the DMW, and every worker leaves Manila with a verified contract, medical clearance, pre-departure orientation and an Overseas Employment Certificate. Recruitment follows the employer-pays principle: no applicant pays for an interview, a trade test or a place on a shortlist. Your company is the employer from day one; we never employ or lease the workers.
Everything here is subject to the Employment Permits Act 2024 and regulations, the occupations lists in force (S.I. 213/2026), DETE and ISD practice, Irish employment law and Philippine DMW rules.
€36,605 — dairy farm assistants are not in the sub-standard list; DETE's checklist states €36,605 (€18.05 an hour) for dairy farm assistants and meat deboners.
Yes — the employer on the permit is the company that employs and pays the worker; relief services and farm partnerships recruit in groups and place assistants regionally.
Yes — New Zealand, Israel and the Gulf employ Filipino dairy workers in large numbers; we select for grass-based, spring-calving experience and test milking routine and hygiene.
By late summer for a spring-calving start; four to six months from brief to arrival.
General information for employers, not legal or migration advice. Rules change; we re-verify before each hire.