Ireland issued 30,981 work permits in 2023, with only five per cent of them being refused (1,575) whereas another two per cent (641) were withdrawn.
The data published by the official website of the Irish government, reveals that most work permits were granted to Indian nationals, while the top five countries of origin represented 65 per cent of all beneficiaries, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
Regarding the type of employment, the Irish government issued most visas for health and social workers, while information and communication was the second sector with the most beneficiaries in 2023.
Nationals of India, Philippines & 3 More Countries Represented Two-Thirds of All Work Permits Beneficiaries
Out of the total of almost 31,000 permits, 65 per cent of them were issued to Filipinos, Brazilians, Pakistani and Chinese nationals, while Indians were the undisputable beneficiaries. A total of 11,893 or 38 per cent of all work permits were issued to Indian nationals in 2023.
The Philippines and Brazil were the second and third countries of origin for foreign workers to Ireland, but considerably fewer people from these two countries were employed compared to India – 2,634 and 2,632, respectively.
Rejection rates were generally low, except for two nationalities; Indians and Brazilians, who got a total of 643 work permits rejected. Indians had the highest number of rejected work permits but that can be due to the high volume of applications. However, the proportion of permits rejected by Brazilian nationals is considerably higher, representing almost ten per cent of all permits issued – 253 out of 2,632.
Chinese and South Africans were the fourth and fifth nationality groups to benefit from the work permits issued by Ireland in 2023, obtaining 1,533 and 1,488 work permits, respectively.
Nearly One-Third of Work Permits Were Issued to Health & Social Workers
The most sought-after sector was health and social work activities, with more than 10,000 workers in this sector obtaining work permits and representing 32 per cent of the total.
Information and communication activities were second with 5,009 permits issued to workers of this sector while accommodation and food services were the third most common type of employment to be issued work visas – a total of 2,606 of them.
On average 2,500 permits were issued every month in 2023, with June and July making an exception since over 3,000 permits were granted during these two months, respectively.
Almost Half of 2023 Work Permits Issued in Dublin
Over 49 per cent of all work permits (15,401) were issued in Dublin, the Irish capital, while Cork followed second (2,613). A total of 1,734 permits were granted to workers in Kildare, ranking this as the third destination for most work permit beneficiaries in 2023.
Apart from Dublin where 752 permits were rejected and another 265 were withdrawn, higher rejections were recorded in Cork (123), Galway (85) and Limerick (84).
