Driving innovation and growth with international talent
Navigating the complex employment landscape by helping businesses to source skilled workers from abroad
Ireland is home to a host of growing indigenous businesses and multi-national corporations who are often looking for particular or niche skillsets sourced from abroad. Ireland’s arts and culture industry also attracts a high volume of overseas talent travelling to Ireland from around the world. Navigating the complex immigration landscape for companies hiring talent from abroad, as well as those coming to Ireland on a temporary basis can present a significant challenge for organisations.
Jane Pilkington is a corporate immigration specialist in Deloitte, with 25 years’ experience, so she knows this field inside out.
"We help businesses gain access to highly skilled talent from abroad in a way that strengthens their capabilities, fuels their innovation plans, and enables their long-term growth."
Jane Pilkington, Partner, Tax & Legal
“We help companies employ skilled people from outside the European Economic Area (EEA), which is made up of the EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
“When I started advising on immigration, not many employers were willing to employ non-EEA nationals, purely because they thought that this would be yet another hoop they’d have to jump through. Today, that’s all changed. We help businesses gain access to highly skilled talent from abroad in a way that strengthens their capabilities, fuels their innovation plans, and enables their long-term growth.”
“The type of talent we assist with is very diverse. As well as companies growing and scaling, we also support organisations across the arts and culture industry. For example, those coming to film in Ireland or stage a major show, that have artists and production teams travelling in. We also support global and domestic companies with managing their entire corporate immigration programmes to ensure full compliance and to support growth, productivity and success.
“We work side by side with our Deloitte team that supports clients with employer tax, payroll tax, rewards and benefits and related matters. When you add our corporate immigration expertise into the mix, we’re a real asset to clients who are looking to onboard international talent.
“Ireland is at full employment, so talent mobility is a strategic response to major demographic shifts and to widening skills gaps in key areas. The recent Draghi report on EU competitiveness saw the former ECB President warn of imbalances between workers versus retired or non-employed persons. The load on the workforce is sharply increasing, so the need to increase the workforce is starker than ever. These future demographic changes are also considered in the Department of Finance’s report 'Future Forty: Ireland’s Demographic Outlook” published in September 2025'.
"The less productivity within an economy, the harder it is to support that economy in terms of a country's finances, so employing non-EEA nationals and bringing in workers from outside to support talent shortages is very beneficial not just for our client companies, but for Ireland Inc as well.”
