What you need to know
- The Employment (Contractual Retirement Ages) Act 2025: The Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Alan Dillon has indicated that a commencement order for the Act will be published in Q3 of 2026.
- The Protection of Employees (Employers’ Insolvency) (Amendment) Act 2026: This Act was signed by the President on 30 March 2026 and is now law.
- Pay transparency: As of the date of writing, the Government has yet to transpose the Pay Transparency Directive ahead of the 7 June 2026 deadline.
- Minimum Annual Remuneration (MAR) Threshold changes: Significant changes were made to the MAR salary thresholds for employment permits from 1 March 2026.
- Compensation cap set aside: The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) awarded a job applicant €40,000 for discrimination in a recruitment process. It found that the current statutory cap on compensation of €13,000 for discrimination against job applicants did not provide an effective remedy.
- Code of Practice on Access to Part-Time Working: The WRC updated the Code of Practice on Access to Part-Time Working in January 2026.
The Employment (Contractual Retirement Ages) Act 2025
The Employment (Contractual Retirement Ages) Act 2025 was enacted in December 2025. The Act provides that an employee may notify their employer if they do not consent to retire at the mandatory retirement age provided for in their contract. Instead, they may indicate their wish to work until the State pension age of 66. This applies in situations where the contractual retirement age is less than 66 years of age. At the time of writing, no commencement date has been set. It should be noted that the provisions of the Act are not yet in force until a commencement order is made.
In response to a parliamentary question in April 2026, the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Alan Dillon, stated that he anticipates that the legislation will be commenced in Q3 of 2026.
For more information about the Act, please see our recent article on the topic:
The Employment (Contractual Retirement Ages) Act 2025
The Protection of Employees (Employers’ Insolvency) (Amendment) Act 2026
The Protection of Employees (Employers’ Insolvency) (Amendment) Act 2026 was signed by the President on 30 March and is now law.
The Act makes changes to the Government’s Insolvency Payments Scheme. The scheme protects employees’ pay-related entitlements when an employer becomes insolvent. Payments under the scheme are made from the Social Insurance Fund. This scheme is governed by the Protection of Employees (Employers' Insolvency) Act 1984, as amended and is informed by Directive 2008/94/EC. The Supreme Court found[1] that Ireland did not fully transpose Directive 2008/94/EC to cover what has been described as ‘informal insolvencies’, where a business has ceased trading but fails to fully wind up. When this happened, under the original transposing Act, former employees were unable to recover money owed to them under the insolvency payments scheme.
The Protection of Employees (Employers’ Insolvency) (Amendment) Act 2026 is intended to address this gap, among other objectives. A number of the Act’s provisions were commenced on 5 May 2026. These include:
- Sections 1-3: Preliminary and general provisions relating to the short title, definitions etc
- Section 7 (c), (d) and (e)(i): Targeted amendments to section 6 of the Principal Act relating to employees’ rights on the insolvency of the employer
- Section 8 (other than paragraph (b)): Amendments to section 7 of the Principal Act relating to payment of unpaid contributions to occupational pension schemes
- Section 9(a): Amendments relating to section 8 of the Principal Act and the power of the Minister to require certain information and documents.
- Section 11: Minor and consequential amendments to the Principal Act
- Section 13: Technical amendments to the Employment Equality Act
A further commencement order will be required for the remainder of the provisions to be enforceable.
Pay Transparency Directive
The ‘toolkit’ for gender-neutral job evaluation and classification has been published by European Institute for Gender Equality and can be found online. This toolkit is aimed at assisting businesses to conduct gender neutral job classification and evaluations.
Ireland have yet to transpose the Pay Transparency Directive, the deadline for which is 7 June 2026. Ibec has stressed the “significant structural and cultural shifts within organisations” that will be required of employers to be compliant with what it described as the “most significant piece of EU employment legislation in decades”.
For more information about the most recent updates and commentary surrounding Pay Transparency, see our recent articles on the topic:
One in five Irish employers see pay transparency rules as unnecessary burden
The EU Pay Transparency Directive
MAR Threshold changes
The Irish Government published a new roadmap for MAR Salary Thresholds in December 2025. The MAR is the lowest salary for which an employment permit can be issued. The plan introduces a gradual approach to increasing salary thresholds across all employment permit types. The first of these increases applied in March 2026.
For more information about the changes, please see our recent article on the topic:
Minimum Annual Remuneration Thresholds for employment permits
Compensation pay cap set aside
In a recent case[2], the WRC awarded a job applicant €40,000 in an equality claim. This significantly exceeded the current statutory cap on compensation for similar claims of €13,000 under the Employment Equality Acts 1998 – 2015 (the Acts) . This decision demonstrates the WRC’s willingness to depart from established national limits and its broad authority to disapply national legislation where it conflicts with EU law. Employers should be aware that statutory compensation limits may no longer be fixed, as EU law principles can require stronger deterrent remedies in cases of discrimination, in this case by way of an award which exceeds that set out in the Acts.
For more information, please see our recent article on the topic:
Landmark decision sees compensation cap set aside in discrimination claim
Code of Practice on Access to Part-Time Working
The Code of Practice on Access to Part-Time Working was updated by the WRC on 22 January 2026, replacing the previous 2006 version. It is aimed at providing clear, updated guidance for both employers and employees on implementing part-time arrangements. The Code is applicable to all employers and employees.
For more information about the Code, please see our recent article on the topic:
Code of Practice on Access to Part-Time Working
Next steps
There have been a number of important changes to the law in Q1 2026. For specific advice as to how these changes might affect you, contact our Employment Law & Benefits team.
The content of this article is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute legal or other advice.
[1] Glegola v Minister for Social Protection [2018] IESC 65
[2] Noel O’Connell v National Council for Special Education (ADJ-00042837)