Irish Employment Permit Backlog Reaches Six-Week Mark, Delaying Overseas Hires
Government Mulls Transitional Relief as Eight-Year Citizenship Rule Looms
Ryanair Vows to Fight Competitors’ Irish High Court Bid to Ground Its Fleet
Latest News
Budget Day Road Closures and Bus Éireann Cancellations to Disrupt Dublin Business Travel
Extended Budget Day road closures in Dublin city centre will run from 22:00 on 5 October to 23:55 on 6 October, prompting widespread Bus Éireann diversions and cancellations, including airport services. Business travellers and mobility managers should build in extra transfer time and monitor the TFI Live app.
Aer Lingus Courts Norwegian Market as Shannon Eyes New Air France-KLM Link
Aer Lingus will code-share with start-up Into Norway on Oslo–Dublin flights from December, expanding one-stop links to Scandinavia. Separately, Air France-KLM is negotiating a new Shannon–Paris Orly service for 2027, a potential boost for Ireland’s west-coast exporters and inbound travel.
Government to Temporarily Relax 50:50 Rule on Employment Permits for Family Carers
Minister Peter Burke will bring a memo to Cabinet on 6 October proposing a six-month suspension of the 50:50 workforce nationality rule for employment permits in the home-help sector. The move aims to alleviate acute shortages of carers, especially in rural counties like Clare. If approved, Irish agencies could recruit non-EEA health-care assistants more easily, boosting community services and freeing up hospital beds.
Ireland to temporarily relax 50:50 employment-permit rule to tackle home-help staffing crisis
Enterprise Minister Peter Burke will ask Cabinet to waive the requirement that at least half of a firm’s staff be from the EU, UK, Switzerland or Ireland before it can hire non-EEA workers. The six-month derogation would apply only to home-help providers struggling to fill care vacancies, with safeguards on pay and qualifications. The change highlights Ireland’s readiness to deploy immigration tools to relieve service pressures, but it is unlikely to herald a wider easing of permit ratios.
Government pivots on international-student strategy as visa refusals and housing squeeze bite
A Global Student Living analysis notes that record overseas enrolments are colliding with Ireland’s acute student-housing shortage and a sharp rise in study-visa refusals. The Government’s new accommodation strategy offers long-term solutions, but ministers now urge universities to expand transnational education abroad to ease on-shore pressures. The shift will affect visa issuance, graduate-talent pipelines and PBSA investment decisions.
Irish Employment Permits Online Portal Announces 6 October Evening Shutdown for Scheduled Maintenance
DETE’s Employment Permits Online portal will be offline from 18:00–21:00 IST on 6 October 2026 for system maintenance. During the outage, no new Irish work-permit applications or fee payments can be processed. Employers with urgent filings should submit earlier in the day and expect a new dashboard showing live processing statistics once the system returns.