Statutory notice period
The minimum notice an employer must give. Contracts and collective agreements can lengthen it and only rarely shorten it, and the tenure bands are where cross-border assumptions usually go wrong.
Applies once the employee has 13 weeks' continuous service. The employee side is 1 week regardless of tenure. Contracts commonly set longer periods both ways.
| Service | Employer notice |
|---|---|
| 13 weeks to under 2 years | 1 week |
| 2 to under 5 years | 2 weeks |
| 5 to under 10 years | 4 weeks |
| 10 to under 15 years | 6 weeks |
| 15 years or more | 8 weeks |
These are floors; where the contract gives more, the contract governs. Payment in lieu is permitted by agreement.
Source: Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act 1973, s. 4, electronic Irish Statute Book. Checked on 2026-07-27.
Minimum paid annual leave
The statutory floor for paid holiday. The counting basis matters as much as the number, since some laws count a six-day week and others count working days or calendar weeks.
4 weeks per year.
The statute gives the greatest of three calculations: 4 working weeks in a leave year with at least 1,365 hours worked, one-third of a working week for each month with at least 117 hours, or 8 per cent of hours worked capped at 4 weeks. A working week means the days the person usually works.
Source: Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, s. 19 (revised), Law Reform Commission. Checked on 2026-07-27.
Probation limit
The longest trial period the law allows an employer to agree, together with the notice that applies while it runs.
6 months at most, with notice of during it.
Private-sector employees; public servants have a 12-month cap.
Extendable to at most 12 months on an exceptional basis where that is in the employee's interest. Absence on protected leave suspends the clock. For fixed-term contracts the probation must be proportionate to the contract's length, and a renewal for the same role carries no new probation.
Source: Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions, Workplace Relations Commission. Checked on 2026-07-27.
Employer social contributions
What the employer pays on top of gross salary into statutory schemes. Some countries charge a percentage of pay, others charge flat amounts, and a single headline rate hides caps, regional rules and industry-rated items.
Figures apply for 2026, at the rates in force from January to September.
| Scheme | Rate, per cent of pay | Charged on |
|---|---|---|
| Employer PRSI, Class A9 per cent applies instead where weekly pay is 552 or less; whichever rate applies covers the whole of that week's pay. The 1 per cent National Training Fund levy sits inside this rate, not on top. From 1 October 2026 the rates rise to 11.4 and 9.15 under the PRSI roadmap. | 11.25 | the whole salary, with no ceiling |
There is no separate employer health or pension contribution in PRSI. Pension auto-enrolment adds its own employer cost as it phases in and sits outside these figures.
Source: Paying social insurance (PRSI), Citizens Information; Advance Notice for 2026: PRSI changes, Department of Social Protection. Checked on 2026-07-27.