Remote onboarding for Irish teams
Reviewed by Mellow Editorial Team, HR & payroll content team
Remote onboarding for an Irish team follows the same legal obligations as in-person onboarding — a written statement of core terms within five days, proper payroll registration, and tax setup — but the logistics need to work without anyone sitting in the same room.
Get the paperwork right before day one
The Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018 requires you to give every new employee a written statement of five core terms within five days of starting. These are: the full names of employer and employee, the address of the employer, the expected duration of the contract (or the end date if fixed-term), the rate or method of calculating pay, and the hours and days the employee is expected to work.
For remote hires, issue this digitally and get a signed acknowledgement back. Email with a read receipt is fine; a simple e-signature tool is better.
Your full contract of employment — covering notice periods, place of work, data protection obligations, remote working policy, and expenses — should go out at the same time, even though the law only mandates the five-day statement.
Note the place of work carefully. If someone is employed in Ireland but works remotely from a different country, the implications for tax and employment law change significantly. For straightforward Irish remote roles, "primarily working from home, [County]" is clear and accurate.
Register the employee with Revenue before the first payday
Before you run payroll for a new hire, you need to add them on Revenue Online Service (ROS) and confirm their PPSN and tax credits. Ask the employee for their PPSN on or before their first day. Once you have it, you can look up their tax credit certificate, which tells you the correct tax credits and cut-off point to apply.
For 2026/27, the standard rate of income tax is 20% up to approximately €44,000 for a single person, with 40% applying above that. Ireland does not use a personal allowance — tax liability is reduced through credits, so applying the right credits from the start matters.
You also need to deduct USC at the correct banded rates: 0.5%, 2%, 3%, and 8% across the relevant income thresholds. PRSI Class A applies to most employees: the employee contributes approximately 4.1% and you as the employer contribute approximately 11.15%.
Payroll submissions go to Revenue in real time via ROS — a payroll submission must reach Revenue on or before each payday. There is no grace period. If you are using payroll software, it will handle the submission; if not, you are responsible for doing it manually through ROS.
Set up equipment and system access in advance
Remote onboarding fails most often not because of legal oversights but because the laptop arrives on day three, or access to the core tools is not granted until the end of week one. Avoid this with a short pre-boarding checklist:
- Issue equipment at least two working days before the start date where possible
- Create company email and system accounts before day one, so the employee can log in immediately
- Send login credentials and instructions in a secure format — not plain text in an email
- Confirm internet allowance or home office equipment policy in writing
Under the Right to Request Remote Work legislation, Irish employees have a formal right to request remote working. If you are onboarding someone into a designated remote role, documenting that arrangement in the contract from the start is cleaner than adding it later.
Build structure into the first two weeks
Without a physical office, a new employee has no natural way to absorb company culture, ask a quick question, or meet colleagues by accident. You need to create that structure deliberately.
A practical approach:
- Assign a named buddy or onboarding contact — not just the line manager
- Schedule a 30-minute check-in on days one, three, and five of the first week
- Send a written first-week plan (not a verbal outline) so the employee knows what to expect each day
- Introduce the employee to their immediate team in a short video call on day one — keep it brief and purposeful
Annual leave entitlement starts accruing from day one. The statutory minimum is four working weeks per year. Include this in your onboarding materials and tell the employee how to book leave, who approves it, and where it is tracked.
Pension obligations and what is coming in 2026
If you already operate a workplace pension scheme, enrol your new hire according to your scheme rules and confirm their contribution rate in writing.
If you do not have a scheme, be aware that pension auto-enrolment under the government's My Future Fund programme is being introduced from 2026. Employees aged 23 to 60 earning above a certain threshold will be automatically enrolled, with both employer and employee contributions required. The exact contribution rates are being phased in. If you are onboarding now, you should factor this obligation into your employment cost planning and ensure your payroll system will be able to handle automatic enrolment deductions when they fall due.
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