Employment permits and temporary layoff, reduced hours, or redundancy as a result of COVID-19

The past twelve months has seen a large percentage of the Irish population being temporarily laid off, having their work hours reduced, or being made redundant as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A percentage of those people are employment permit holders who must comply with various requirements such as working a certain number of hours, for a certain amount of pay. Therefore, employment permit holders who have been temporarily laid off, had their hours reduced, or were made redundant as a result of COVID-19 might be concerned about what this means for them and if it will impact their renewal of Stamp 4 support letter applications for example.

In the event of temporary layoff or reduced hours, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment have advised they should be notified, ideally in advance, of the layoff or reduced hours. If this hasn't been done, it is often better to make such a notification sooner than not notifying them at all.

The Department will then make a note of it on your permit file, and when the time comes to either renew your permit, or apply for a Stamp 4 support letter, the Department will take this into consideration.

In the event of redundancy, it is vitally important that you notify the Department of this within four weeks of the date of the redundancy using the special Redundancy Form.

If you have been or think you might be affected by temporary lay off, reduced hours, or be redundancy as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, please feel free to contact our office and we will advise you on the best way to handle your particular set of circumstances.