Offboarding well in Ireland
Reviewed by Mellow Editorial Team, HR & payroll content team
Offboarding an employee in Ireland has clear legal obligations attached to it — get them wrong and you risk an unfair dismissal or payment claim. Done properly, it protects the business, preserves the relationship, and keeps your payroll and Revenue records clean.
Know your notice obligations first
Before anything else, confirm the correct notice period. The Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act 1973 sets statutory minimums based on length of service, but your contract may specify longer notice — whichever is greater applies. If you are terminating rather than accepting a resignation, document the reason clearly. Dismissal without fair procedure can lead to a claim at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), regardless of how short the employee's tenure was.
If you are making a role redundant, separate rules apply under the Redundancy Payments Acts. Employees with at least two years' continuous service are entitled to a statutory redundancy payment calculated on their weekly pay and years of service. Check your solicitor or the WRA statutory redundancy calculator — do not estimate this figure.
Run a clean final payroll
The employee's last payslip needs to capture everything accurately:
- Outstanding salary up to and including the last working day or end of notice period
- Accrued but untaken annual leave, which must be paid out. Statutory entitlement is 4 working weeks per year, so calculate the proportion earned in the current leave year that has not been taken
- Any contractual bonuses or commission that have accrued, if the contract provides for payment on termination
- Deductions for any leave taken in excess of what had accrued — only make this deduction if the contract explicitly permits it
On or before the final payday, submit the payroll in the normal way through Revenue Online Service (ROS). Ireland operates real-time payroll reporting, so the payslip and the Revenue submission must align. There is no special "final payroll" form — you report through the same PAYE Modernisation system you use every pay period. Deduct income tax at the employee's current tax credits and rate bands (standard rate 20% up to the threshold, 40% above), USC at the appropriate bands, and PRSI at the Class A employee rate of approximately 4.1%, with the employer contribution of approximately 11.15%.
If you have been running pension contributions — and from 2026 this includes the new My Future Fund auto-enrolment scheme — ensure final contributions are correctly calculated and submitted in line with scheme rules.
Issue the P45 — or rather, update Revenue correctly
Since PAYE Modernisation in 2019, employers no longer issue paper P45s. When you submit the employee's final payroll, mark the employment as ceased on the ROS submission. Revenue will update the employee's tax record automatically, and the employee can view their employment history through MyAccount. You do not need to hand the employee a physical form, but it is good practice to confirm to them in writing that their cessation has been submitted to Revenue and on what date.
Handle the practical handover
A clean operational offboarding protects the business day-to-day:
- Revoke system access on or before the last day — email, cloud storage, internal tools, any platforms they had admin rights to
- Collect company property — laptop, phone, access cards, any physical materials
- Handover documentation — ask the employee to document open projects, key contacts and any passwords held only by them. Build this into the notice period rather than leaving it to the final afternoon
- Notify relevant third parties — clients, suppliers or internal teams who need to know there is a new point of contact
If the role involved access to sensitive data, consider whether a garden leave clause in the contract applies, or whether a confidentiality reminder is appropriate on departure.
Conduct an exit interview and keep records
An exit interview is optional but valuable. Employees leaving voluntarily often give candid feedback that a survey will not surface. Keep it brief, structured and genuinely curious — ask what worked, what did not, and whether anything in the role or environment prompted the decision to leave. Feed the themes (anonymised where appropriate) into your HR review process.
On the records side: retain payroll records for the periods required under Revenue rules, and keep the personnel file — including any disciplinary records, performance documentation and the termination letter — for long enough to cover any potential WRC claim window. Employment equality and unfair dismissal claims can be taken for varying periods after termination, so check current limitation periods with your legal adviser.
After departure: restrictive covenants and references
If the employee signed a non-compete, non-solicitation or garden leave clause, review whether it is enforceable. Irish courts apply a reasonableness test — overly broad clauses are routinely struck down. If you intend to enforce a restriction, get legal advice promptly.
For references, decide your policy in advance rather than case by case. Many employers provide a factual reference confirming dates of employment and job title only. If you choose to give a fuller reference, ensure it is accurate and fair — a misleading reference, positive or negative, can create liability.
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