The number of work permits granted to non-European Economic Area residents fell by almost a quarter last year with the health, technology and agriculture sectors all seeing sharp drops.
The total number of permits issued over the course of 2025 was 31,044 compared with 39,390 in 2024 according to figures published by the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment.
Those granted to workers in the health sector fell by more than a third, from 12,501 to 7,948 while the numbers in Information and Communication Technology almost halved, from 6,788 to 3,630. In 2022 the corresponding figure was 10,832, although that comfortably higher than any other recent year.
In the agricultural sector, meanwhile, issued permits dropped from 2,990 to 1,915.
READ MORE
Colm Collins, a director at immigration consultants Fragomen, says there were a number of factors in the overall numbers including the launch of a new processing system by the department last year that delayed many applications and deterred some employers from proceeding with applications.
“To be fair to the department, it did a lot of work to help employers who were hit by the issues but the changes did still have a big impact, particular in the middle of the year.”
He said the easing of demand for overseas workers in the ICT sector was largely attributable to global uncertainty in that sector and the wider economy but he said the numbers had stabilised in recent months.
“Another factor here is that there was a particularly large number of permits issued in 2022 which meant a large number of renewals in 2024 and so part of what we are seeing here is simply part of the natural cycle of the process,” he said.
The drop in the health sector, meanwhile, may have been partly attributable to the 50:50 rule which requires employers to have at least as many EEA workers as non EEA ones. This caused difficulties for nursing home operators last year according to Nursing Home Ireland’s Tadhg Daly and the department has since undertaken to review regulations.
“More than 12 per cent of all of the permits issued go to healthcare assistants, care workers and home carers and I don’t think there was any drop in demand last year but the rules did cause problems for many nursing homes and we are pleased they are being reviewed,” he said.
The HSE restrictions on staff numbers also appear to have played a part, meanwhile, with the number of permits issued to workers at some of the country’s largest public hospitals including St Vincent’s, St James’ and the Mater, a fraction of what they had been the year before.
Amazon, Accenture, EY and Google were the private sector companies seeking the largest numbers of permits and Indian citizens were in receipt of 9,947; almost a third of the total number issued.
