Employer of Record or Employment Agency? The WRC has found that these working relationships aren’t quite so different after all
Published on: 09/10/2026
Issues Covered:
Article Authors The main content of this article was provided by the following authors.
Aoife Gallagher-Watson Director, Employment Law, EY Law Ireland
Aoife Gallagher-Watson Director, Employment Law, EY Law Ireland
Ey aoife gallagher watson

Aoife Gallagher-Watson is director in employment law at EY Law Ireland.
A specialist in the areas of employment and work health and safety law, Aoife has over 15 years’ experience working in-house and with top-tier law employment teams in Ireland and overseas.
She has worked with a range of clients across regulated and unregulated industries, advising on contentious and non-contentious employment matters.
Aoife also has extensive experience in advising and representing companies and senior executives in connection with work health and safety obligations, regulatory investigations and prosecutions.

EY Law Ireland
Tel: 01-4750555  
Email: Aoife.Gallagher-Watson@ie.ey.com
www.ey.com

What is an Employer of Record and has anything changed under Irish law?

The concept of the "Employer of Record" ("EOR") is not currently defined in Irish law. Relatively common across Europe, the model centres around the use of a third-party organisation appointed as the legal employer of a worker in a country where the client/end user business has no entity of its own. The intention is to allow the client/end user to engage employees without setting up a local company. The EOR handles payroll, tax withholding, and formal employment law compliance, while the employee is assigned to carry out day-to-day work under the direction and supervision of the end-user. It sounds like a winning solution for businesses who need

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Disclaimer The information in this article is provided as part of Legal Island's Employment Law Hub. We regret we are not able to respond to requests for specific legal or HR queries and recommend that professional advice is obtained before relying on information supplied anywhere within this article. This article is correct at 09/10/2026
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