25/08/2026
📢 The €300 Irish Residence Permit fee is excessive — and the service provided does not justify it.
The Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MRCI) has called on the Government, as part of Budget 2027, to:
🔹 cap the IRP fee at €75 for first-time registrations and €55 for renewals;
🔹 increase staffing within Immigration Service Delivery’s Registration Division by 30%; and
🔹 introduce a legally guaranteed grace period protecting the right to work where a renewal application was submitted before the existing permission expired.
We fully support this call.
Many non-EU workers must pay €300 each year for an IRP card that reportedly costs the State only €20.44 to produce and deliver. At the same time, applicants are waiting up to 16 weeks to receive their cards. These delays can prevent people from starting or continuing employment, accepting new opportunities, travelling in urgent family circumstances, or proving their lawful immigration status.
However, the problem extends beyond IRP registration.
Since local immigration registration services around the country were closed and the system became centralised, applicants have experienced serious difficulties obtaining timely assistance. Queries submitted through the Customer Service Portal can remain unanswered for weeks, while other immigration systems and application processes are also failing to operate effectively.
EU Treaty Rights applicants are particularly affected. We are seeing:
🔹 delays in issuing temporary Stamp 4 permissions;
🔹 decisions taking longer than the prescribed six-month period;
🔹 applicants being unable to register while awaiting the necessary approval letter;
🔹 people losing employment or being placed on unpaid leave because they cannot produce current evidence of permission;
🔹 applicants being directed through an incorrect online renewal process, only to be told 12–17 weeks later that a separate EUTR application was required; and
🔹 apparent gaps arising in applicants’ immigration records, which may delay or complicate future Irish citizenship applications—particularly where the gap falls within the year immediately before the application.
A service that charges one of the highest residence-permit fees in Europe must be accessible, adequately staffed and capable of issuing documents and responding to queries within reasonable timeframes.
Reducing the IRP fee is necessary, but it must form part of a wider reform of the immigration registration and customer-service system. Migrants should not lose employment, income, the ability to travel or face difficulties with a future citizenship application because of administrative delays entirely outside their control.
We join MRCI in calling on the Government to address these failures in Budget 2027.
