The Critical Skills Occupations List: every job on it, explained

In short: The Critical Skills Occupations List is the official list of jobs Ireland is short of. If your job is on it, you need a relevant degree and a salary of at least €40,904 to qualify for a Critical Skills Employment Permit. That permit has no labour market test, your family can join you straight away, and you can move to Stamp 4 after 21 months. The list was last updated in May 2026.

How the list works

The list is set in law by the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment. Jobs are grouped using the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC 2010) codes. Each group is a broad family of jobs, such as Engineering Professionals, and lists specific occupations under it.

Two things catch people out:

• Specialisms count. Many entries only qualify with a particular specialism or level of experience. A mechanical engineer is on the list as it stands; an electronics engineer only qualifies with a specialism such as chip design or process automation.
• Your job title isn’t decisive. What matters is the work you’ll actually do, as described in your contract and job description, and how the Department matches it to a code.

The salary rules

Your situation	Minimum salary	Qualification
Job on the list	€40,904	Relevant degree (or higher)
Job on the list, degree received in the last 12 months	€36,848	Relevant degree
Job not on the list (and not on the Ineligible List)	€68,911	Relevant degree or equivalent experience

The job offer must be for at least two years. Only basic salary and qualifying health insurance payments count towards the minimum.

The full list

Managers and directors

Code	Occupation	Conditions
1122	Site manager
1136	IT and telecommunications directors
1181	Senior health services and public health managers and directors
1213	Professional forester; resource modelling, earth observation and data analyst

Science

Code	Occupation	Conditions
2111	Chemical scientists	Specialism in manufacturing (including food and drink, medical devices), product or analytical development, clinical co-vigilance or biotechnology
2112	Biological scientists and biochemists; medical laboratory scientists; agronomists	Biological scientists: same specialisms as chemical scientists
2113	Physical scientists; meteorologists; operational forecasters	Physical scientists: same specialisms as chemical scientists

Engineering

Code	Occupation	Conditions
2121	Civil engineers, including structural and site engineers
2122	Mechanical engineers
2123	Electrical engineers
2124	Electronics engineers	Specialism in chip design, test or application engineering, process automation, or power generation, transmission and distribution
2126	Design and development engineers	Specialism in quality control or validation (high tech, food and drink), chip design, process automation, or power
2127	Production and process engineers	Specialism in quality or validation, chemical process engineering, process automation, or power
2129	Chemical engineers; material scientists; setting-out engineers; façade designers; project engineers

ICT

Code	Occupation	Conditions
2133	IT specialist managers; BIM managers
2134	IT project and programme managers
2135	IT business analysts, architects and systems designers
2136	Programmers and software development professionals
2137	Web design and development professionals
2139	Other ICT professionals

Health and care

Code	Occupation	Conditions
2211	Medical practitioners
2212	Psychologists
2213	Pharmacists, including industrial pharmacists
2214	Optometrists; ophthalmic opticians (community eye care)
2217	Radiographers, radiation therapists, and cardiac, vascular, gastrointestinal and respiratory physiologists
2218	Podiatrists and chiropodists
2219	Audiologists, perfusionists, dieticians and medical scientists
222	Physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, orthoptists
2231	Registered nurses	Must be registered with, or eligible for, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland
2232	Registered midwives	As above
3213	Paramedics and advanced paramedic practitioners	Registered with PHECC
3218	Prosthetists, orthotists and respiratory physiologists
2442	Social workers

Education

Code	Occupation	Conditions
2311	Academics	Level 10 (doctoral) qualification awarded at least two years before applying, at least one academic year of relevant teaching, and employed by an Irish university, institute of technology or technological university, or teaching a largely ICT programme leading to a Level 8 or 9 award

Business, finance and law

Code	Occupation	Conditions
2419	Intellectual property professionals
2421	Chartered and certified accountants; tax experts	Specialism in tax, compliance, regulation, solvency or financial management
2421	Qualified accountants (US audit)	At least 3 years’ auditing experience, full member of AICPA, PICPA or ICAP, US GAAP experience, and employed in a multinational’s global audit services
2421	Non-EEA tax consultants	Professional tax or legal qualification with a tax specialism, and at least 3 years’ experience in the relevant non-EEA market
2423	Management consultants and business analysts	Specialism in big data analytics
2424	Business and financial project management professionals	Specialism in finance, investment, risk, credit or fraud analytics
2425	Actuaries, economists and statisticians	Specialism in big data analytics
3531	Estimators
3542	Business sales executives	International or ICT business-to-business sales, and fluent in an official language of a non-EEA country that isn’t an EEA language
3543	International marketing experts	Product strategy knowledge in pharmaceuticals, medical devices, B2B software or SaaS

Construction and property

Code	Occupation	Conditions
2431	Architects
2432	Town planning officers
2433	Quantity surveyors
2434	Geospatial, land and geomatics surveyors
2435	Architectural technologists
2436	Construction project managers, planners and schedulers; commercial managers
3122	BIM coordinators and technicians

Quality and regulation

Code	Occupation	Conditions
2461	Quality control and planning engineers
2462	Quality assurance and regulatory professionals
2463	Environmental health professionals

Creative, games and sport

Code	Occupation	Conditions
2473	Art directors (2D or 3D animation)	At least one year’s experience in the role
3411	Animation background and design artists (2D or 3D)	At least one year’s experience in the role
3417	Riggers	In the games industry
3421	Location, character and prop designers; animation layout artists	2D or 3D animation, at least one year’s experience
3442	High-performance coaches and directors	Employed by a national sports body, or a high-profile organisation competing internationally

This table is our plain-English summary of the official list. The exact legal wording on the Department’s page is what counts.

What changed in May 2026

The list was updated in May 2026. The main additions were:

• optometrists and ophthalmic opticians (community eye care)
• intellectual property professionals
• geospatial, land and geomatics surveyors
• riggers in the games industry
• agronomists, meteorologists and operational forecasters
• cardiac and respiratory physiologists
• construction planners and schedulers

At the same time, some jobs were taken off the Ineligible List, such as pharmaceutical technicians and dental technicians, and new exceptions were added, such as steel fixers, fish filleters and ESB Networks lineworkers. Those jobs can now get a General Employment Permit. See our guide to the Ineligible List.

If your job isn’t on the list

You still have options:

• A Critical Skills permit at the higher salary. If the job pays at least €68,911 and isn’t on the Ineligible List, it can qualify whatever the occupation, with a relevant degree or equivalent experience.
• A General Employment Permit. Most jobs paying at least €36,605 qualify, though the employer usually has to run the Labour Market Needs Test first.
• Getting the code right. Sometimes a job really does fall under a listed occupation but has been described in a way that doesn’t show it. A well-written job description that reflects the actual duties makes a difference.

Common questions

Does the list change? Yes. The Department reviews it regularly, usually after a public consultation, and changes come in through new regulations. We check our guides against the current list.

My job title isn’t on the list. Can I still qualify? Possibly. The Department looks at the duties, not the title. Many roles fit under a listed occupation code even if they’re called something else.

Do I need a degree? For a job on the list at €40,904, yes: a relevant degree or higher. At €68,911 or more, relevant experience can be accepted instead.

What about nurses? Registered nurses and midwives are on the list, but you need recognition from the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland before the permit can be issued.

How long does it take? The Department deals with applications in date order. On 23 October 2026 it was working on Critical Skills applications received on 16 October 2026, about a week earlier. See the current processing dates.

Not sure if your job qualifies?

Send us the job title, the salary and a short description of the duties, and we’ll tell you whether it’s on the list, which permit fits, and what you’ll need. It’s free and there’s no obligation: get a free assessment.