Ireland: Employment Permits Portal Offline Following Unauthorized Activity

The situation 

Irish authorities have taken Ireland’s Employment Permits Portal offline after identifying suspicious unauthorized activity. They expect to restore access by November 3, 2026. 

A closer look 

• Potentially affected information. Authorities indicate that the incident may have exposed basic user account information, including names, email addresses and account roles (for example, employer, agent or employee). They currently believe the incident did not affect broader or more sensitive categories of personal data. However, the investigation remains at an early stage.
• Precautions. Authorities advise users to exercise caution with communications that appear to come from the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment or refer to this incident, and note that they will never ask users to disclose personal data by email or text message. Users should avoid clicking suspicious links or opening unexpected attachments, never disclose passwords or other personal data in response to unsolicited requests and exercise caution with requests for personal, business or financial information. 

Impact 

• Permit processing continues. Authorities continue to process employment permit applications as usual. Applicants will still receive updates on decisions on their applications.
• Saved applications and information. Users will be able to access draft applications, applications awaiting fee payment and other information when the portal returns online. This includes applications that may exceed the normal 28-day submission period during the outage.
• Flexibility in assessing applications. Authorities have stated they will apply appropriate flexibility when assessing applications that exceed standard submission timeframes because of the outage. They will also apply flexibility regarding renewal applications and Labour Market Needs Test advertising requirements.  
• Issues or questions. Those with concerns should contact DETE at [email protected]. 

Looking ahead 

Authorities expect to restore portal access by November 3, 2026. 

This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the global immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen.