Companies in Ireland are experiencing the most difficulty in the EU in recruiting foreigners to senior management and professional positions, a new report shows.

Some 47 per cent of Irish organisations find hiring foreign senior managers an arduous task, compared to just 22 per cent for the EU as a whole, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

While half of the companies surveyed say that mobility of workers across the EU is important when recruiting, the PwC report finds that barriers remain significant.

Local organisations surveyed say that they need foreign workers not only to fill a skills shortage but to help build up their international business and improve customer services.

"Despite the EU's ambition of free movement of labour, it hasn't worked like that, especially when you compare it to the US, where mobility within the country is more than 20 per cent," says Philip McDonagh, director of PwC Economics and Public Policy Consulting and author of the EU-sponsored PwC report.

Language skills remain a major obstacle, with more than three-quarters of Irish companies surveyed citing this as a hindrance. Differences in tax systems, healthcare and benefits, the lack of EU-wide integrated employment legislation and patchy cross-border recognition of professional qualifications are also hampering labour mobility across the region.

"In an insufficient EU-wide labour pool, managing mobility in an Irish and EU context is critical to getting the right skills where they are most needed," Mr McDonagh says. "Our report, however, confirms that this does not happen easily, and the relaxation or removal of regulatory barriers to allow for greater mobility of workers must be part of the solution."

The report comes just weeks after the Government introduced a new employment permits regime in an attempt to enable employers to recruit highly-skilled workers from outside the EU. The Government expects 10,000 permits to be issued each year.

A revised work permit scheme was also introduced, mostly applying to non-green card occupations with salaries paying more than €30,000.

One-third of the employers surveyed said that potential job candidates from overseas were discouraged from taking jobs in Ireland because of concerns about housing for their family, education for their children, finding work for their spouses and the prospect of being cut off from friends and extended family.