Ireland · Employer of Record · Payroll Services · PEO
You have found the person you want to hire in Ireland — now you need a compliant way to employ them. JN Recruitment is the expansion partner that connects international companies with vetted Employer of Record and payroll partners in Ireland — plus the employment lawyers, tax advisors and accountants an Irish expansion actually needs — and delivers the boutique recruitment that finds the candidate in the first place.
for an EOR to issue a compliant Irish employment contract once documents are complete
employer PRSI on an Irish gross salary — among the lowest employer burdens in Western Europe
no Irish limited company required — with an Employer of Record, the partner is the legal employer in Ireland
our recommendation is free — the best specialist from our vetted Irish network, matched to your case
Payroll partner Ireland
Ireland is the EU’s English-speaking gateway — and since Brexit, the default first stop for companies that want an EU employment footprint without a language barrier. The payroll machinery is modern but unforgiving: PAYE Modernisation means every payment is reported to Revenue in real time, a Revenue Payroll Notification (RPN) must be retrieved before each payroll run, employer PRSI accrues on every euro, and since January 2026 the new pension auto-enrolment scheme adds a statutory contribution for employees not already in an occupational plan. None of it is optional, and all of it lands before your new hire receives a first payslip.
There are two clean routes. If you have (or will build) an Irish entity, a payroll service provider in Ireland runs the monthly payroll, Revenue submissions and pension enrolments for you. If you have no entity and don’t want one yet, an Employer of Record (EOR) employs your hire legally in Ireland while you direct the day-to-day work — what many US companies would call a PEO. Dublin hosts the European hubs of most global EOR platforms, which makes the market crowded and the quality spread wide. And sooner or later an Irish expansion also needs an employment lawyer for the contract, a tax advisor for the cross-border questions and an accountant for the books. We vet all of it for you.
JN Recruitment is a boutique recruitment firm headquartered in Mannheim, with offices in Poland and Cyprus — and the expansion partner international companies use for the Irish market. Years of placing people in Ireland have built us a network of the best employment lawyers, tax advisors, payroll bureaus, accountants and EOR providers in the country. We recommend exactly the specialists your case needs — free of charge, at the partner’s standard rates — and stay your single point of contact. What we deliver ourselves is the headhunting: the sales recruitment agency for Ireland that international machinery, industrial-technology and recycling companies already use to enter the market.
What we arrange
Whatever stage your Ireland plans are at — first hire without an entity, or a full team on an existing Irish limited company — this is what our vetted Irish network delivers: EOR providers, payroll bureaus, employment lawyers, tax advisors and accountants, matched and introduced by us:
The partner becomes the legal employer of your hire in Ireland — Irish employment contract, PAYE payroll, PRSI, USC, pension auto-enrolment — while you manage the work day-to-day. Live within days, no Irish limited company required, and no statutory time limit on the arrangement. The standard route for a first hire in Ireland.
For companies with an Irish entity: a specialised payroll bureau registers you as an employer with Revenue, retrieves RPNs before every run, files real-time payroll submissions, calculates PAYE, PRSI and USC, manages auto-enrolment contributions and issues payslips — no in-house Irish payroll expertise needed.
Searching for a “PEO Ireland”? The US-style PEO doesn’t exist 1:1 under Irish law — the compliant equivalents are EOR employment or outsourced payroll and HR on your own entity. We translate what you actually need into the right Irish construct, with a vetted provider behind it.
Specialised employment solicitors for watertight Irish contracts and terminations under the Unfair Dismissals Acts, tax advisors for cross-border and permanent-establishment questions, accountants for the books and CRO filings — the advisory bench every Irish expansion eventually needs, already vetted and briefed.
Onboarding paperwork, statutory-leave and sick-pay administration, employment-permit questions for non-EEA hires — plus audits of Irish contractor setups: Revenue and the courts look at the working reality, not the label, and partners convert contractors into compliant employment before a reclassification does it the expensive way.
The part we deliver ourselves: executive search for technical sales and leadership roles in Ireland. If you don’t have the candidate yet, we find them — then plug employment and payroll in behind the signed offer.
Market knowledge
Irish employment is light on employer costs and heavy on real-time compliance. The essentials we brief every company on before an Irish hire:
Employer PRSI runs at roughly 11.25% of gross pay (a reduced rate of about 9% applies below a weekly threshold) — and unlike Germany’s stack of five insurance lines, it is essentially the whole statutory story. That makes Ireland one of the cheapest places in Western Europe to put a professional salary on payroll.
Ireland’s long-announced pension auto-enrolment scheme (“My Future Fund”) launched in January 2026: employees without an occupational pension are enrolled automatically, with employer and employee each contributing 1.5% initially, stepping up to 6% each over the coming decade, plus a State top-up. Occupational schemes above the minimum exempt the employee — most competitive industrial packages already are.
Since PAYE Modernisation, Irish payroll is reported to Revenue on or before every payday, and each run starts by retrieving the employee’s current Revenue Payroll Notification. There is no annual reconciliation buffer to hide errors in — which is why even small Irish employers hand payroll to a bureau.
Statutory sick leave currently stands at five employer-paid days per year at 70% of pay, capped at €110 per day — modest by continental standards, with income continuance beyond that handled via social welfare and, in good packages, income-protection insurance. Notice and probation are short too: one month’s notice and six months’ probation are the professional norm.
Employer cost benchmarks
Payroll quotes in Ireland are built on employer PRSI, the new auto-enrolment contribution and the PAYE withholdings. The 2026 picture — the source of the “roughly 12–13% on top” rule every employer budget should use:
| Contribution | Employer pays | Employee pays |
|---|---|---|
| Employer PRSI (Class A) | ≈11.25% (≈9% below weekly threshold) | ≈4.2% |
| Pension auto-enrolment (My Future Fund) | 1.5%, rising in steps to 6% | 1.5%, rising in steps to 6% |
| Income tax (withheld via PAYE) | — | 20% / 40% |
| Universal Social Charge (USC) | — | ≈0.5–8% |
| Statutory sick pay (5 days/year) | 70% of pay, capped ≈€110/day | — |
Orientation figures for 2026, rounded: PRSI rates have been rising in small annual steps, auto-enrolment applies to employees not in a qualifying occupational scheme (earnings band capped), and USC is banded by income. Rule of thumb: a €70,000 gross salary costs the employer roughly €79,000–80,000 all-in. Your payroll or EOR partner’s quote is the binding number.
Yes. An Employer of Record (EOR) employs your candidate in Ireland on your behalf: the EOR holds the Irish employment contract, runs PAYE payroll, PRSI and USC, and you direct the day-to-day work. No Irish limited company, no Revenue registration, no CRO filings on your side. Ireland sets no statutory time limit on EOR employment and requires no special licence for it — which is one reason so many companies use Ireland as their first EU employment footprint after Brexit.
The EOR is the legal employer under Irish law. It issues a compliant Irish employment contract with the statutory written terms, registers the employment with Revenue, retrieves the Revenue Payroll Notification before each run, withholds income tax, USC and employee PRSI via PAYE, pays employer PRSI, handles pension auto-enrolment, administers annual leave (four weeks statutory plus public holidays) and statutory sick pay, and issues payslips. You remain in charge of the work itself — targets, tasks, tools, day-to-day management — and reimburse the EOR for gross salary, employer costs and a service fee.
Typical Irish EOR pricing is a flat €300–600 per employee per month, or a percentage of gross salary — on top of the salary itself, roughly 11% employer PRSI and the auto-enrolment contribution. Compare that with the alternative: forming an Irish limited company is inexpensive, but running it means a registered office, company secretary, CRO annual returns, accounting and a payroll setup — rarely worth it below three to five employees. We match you with a partner whose pricing fits your head-count and flag the all-in monthly number before you commit.
Budget roughly 12–13%: employer PRSI at about 11.25% of gross, plus the auto-enrolment pension contribution of 1.5% (rising in legislated steps to 6%) for employees not in an occupational scheme. That is remarkably lean — the German equivalent is around 21%. Competitive Irish packages then add the market extras: an occupational pension above the minimum, private health insurance and, for field roles, a car allowance. As a rule of thumb, a €70,000 gross salary costs the employer roughly €79,000–80,000 all-in per year, before any bonus or EOR fee.
In the US, a PEO co-employs your staff while you keep your own entity; an EOR employs them fully so you don’t need one. Irish law has no 1:1 equivalent of the US PEO model — the compliant Irish constructs are EOR employment (no entity needed) or outsourced payroll and HR administration on your own Irish company. Providers use both labels loosely, which is precisely why we check what a partner actually delivers before we introduce them.
Yes. Ireland requires no special labour-leasing licence for EOR employment — a key difference from Germany’s AÜG regime — and there is no maximum duration. The flip side is a low barrier to entry in a market where most global EOR platforms have their European base: compliance quality varies, particularly around written terms, holiday-pay calculation, auto-enrolment duties and employment permits for non-EEA staff. Provider vetting is precisely the work we do before recommending a partner.
Yes. If your Irish limited company or branch already exists, an Irish payroll partner takes over the monthly run: employer registration with Revenue if you have never employed in Ireland before, RPN retrieval and real-time submissions on every payday, PAYE, PRSI and USC calculation, auto-enrolment administration, payslips and year-end reporting. Typical pricing runs per payslip per month. The same partners advise on pension-scheme setup where you want to offer more than the statutory minimum.
Via EOR: the Irish employment contract is typically ready within two to five working days once the candidate’s documents are complete. Ireland then delivers a second speed advantage on the hiring side: notice periods are short — one month is the contractual standard for professionals, three months only for senior roles — so an Irish hire is often selling for you a full quarter earlier than an equivalent hire in Germany. As recruiters, mapping every candidate’s notice period is part of our search. Note that non-EEA candidates need an employment permit, which adds weeks.
Only if they are genuinely self-employed. Irish law looks at the working reality, not the label: following the Supreme Court’s Karshan ruling, Revenue applies a sharpened framework for classifying workers, and a reclassified contractor means back-dated PAYE, PRSI and interest — largely at the employer’s expense. One client, set hours and integration into your team are classic red flags. If the working reality is employment, EOR employment costs little more and removes the risk; our partners also audit and convert existing contractor setups.
No — and that is deliberate. JN Recruitment is a boutique recruitment firm and your expansion partner for Ireland: over years of placing candidates here we have built a vetted network of the best employment solicitors, tax advisors, payroll bureaus, accountants and EOR providers — and we recommend exactly the specialists your case needs. You contract directly with the partner at their standard rates; the recommendation costs you nothing, and we stay your single point of contact. What we deliver ourselves is the search: if the candidate doesn’t exist yet, our Irish headhunting finds them.
Across Europe
The same specialised technical sales search opens every market on the continent — pick the country you are expanding into.
Hiring in several markets at once?
Hiring at leadership level? Our executive search practice:
Candidate found — and now need a compliant way to employ them?
Talk to us — no strings attached. We get back to you within 24 hours.
Our mission is simple: placements that open new markets.
30-minute intro call
Two quick steps — tell us what you need and how to reach you. Within one business day you get an intro call and, where it fits, a direct introduction to the right specialists from our vetted network.
Your contact person Jonas Strambach Director & Senior Recruiter, JN Recruitment +49 1525 2077583 [email protected] Thank you — we’ll get back to you within one business day to schedule your intro call.
An honest read on your vacancy & market — in your first call.
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Before you go
Every month a key sales seat stays empty pushes your expansion plans back — and leaves serious revenue on the table. We fill technical sales positions within weeks, so you hit your expansion targets on schedule.
Jonas Strambach Director & Senior Recruiter, JN Recruitment Free vacancy check · reply within 24 hours
