Pre-employment checks for Ireland
The only background checks platform you need for hiring in Ireland, and everywhere else. Get fast, reliable results with Zinc.
Checks and features
Ireland-specific checks features
Instant employment verification
Confirm candidate work history in seconds thanks to Zinc's direct integration with ROS. Bundle with our automated professional and regulatory reference checks to build a full picture of your candidate's history.
Criminal court search
Zinc's criminal court search helps you protect your business from risk. With results in less than a day, on average, you can stay confident in your next hire.
Centralised reporting
Stay audit-ready and see check progress, all from one central dashboard. Zinc also integrates directly with your HR tech stack at no cost to send results directly to your preferred platform.
7.62
/10
4
hours
Average criminal check completion
18
days
Average education check completion
One platform for your global team
Ever wished you could have one big-picture view of checks progress across all hiring teams and regions? Zinc’s dashboard gives you country-level reporting, and shares custom checks packages across countries and user groups to keep your team consistent.
Fast results for company growth
65% of Zinc’s checks return near-instant results, including employment verification via ROS. We publish all of our turnaround times, including global criminal checks, live on our website, so you’re never left in the dark about timelines and start dates.
Seamless hiring integration
One less login means more time back for your team. Zinc integrates with 20+ ATS and HRIS systems and includes an open API, so you can keep your entire HR tech stack on the same page. All our integrations are available at no extra cost, and most can be set up in minutes.
“Zinc has been working really well! It’s been really easy and so nice to have a platform that just gets everything done so efficiently and conveniently. Being able to have the results before candidates start, globally, is incredible. It’s a pretty self explanatory process, even when a match is found that we need to review.”
Checks that work everywhere you do
Fully visibility, transparent pricing, and adaptable checks for borderless hiring.
Industry-leading global turnaround times
Adaptive checks, not extra admin
Integrated with your HR tech stacking
Truly transparent pricing
Pricing
Built for global teams,
big or small
Under 20 hires annually
Pay As You Grow
Get started in minutes. Our Pay As You Grow plan is built for lower hiring volumes — a flat rate per check, with no hidden costs or setup fees.
Start checking in minutes, no setup needed
Flat rates per check, no hidden fees
Pay only for what you check, every month
20+ hires annually
Custom solutions
For larger volumes, our experts build a plan around your needs. Credit is flexible with your hiring and never expires, with integrations, setup, training, and support all included for free.
A custom plan built around your hiring
Credit pool that rolls over and never expires
Integrations, setup, and training included for free
“Zinc has been good, the main benefit for us has been the time saved. Before, references were a killer, trying to get hold of people and chase up emails. With Zinc, it is a far more robust way of doing it and the international scope for checks has been important for us as well.”
What pre-employment checks are standard in Ireland?
Standard pre-employment checks in Ireland cover employment history, education and qualifications, references, a criminal court search, and right to work verification. Garda Vetting is mandatory for roles involving children, vulnerable adults, and certain Central Bank-regulated positions, but it only applies to those specific contexts, not general corporate hiring.
What is Garda Vetting and when is it required?
Garda Vetting is a statutory criminal disclosure process run by the Garda National Vetting Bureau, and it's mandatory for roles involving children or vulnerable adults, plus certain Central Bank-regulated roles.
It isn't a general-purpose background check. For most professional services, technology, and financial services hiring, a criminal court search is the right check instead, and that's what Zinc runs as standard.
How does Zinc verify employment history in Ireland?
Zinc verifies employment history in Ireland instantly, through ROS (Revenue Online Service), Ireland's government tax portal. Candidates sign in using their PPS number, the same way they would on the ROS site directly. If a candidate doesn't have a ROS account, Zinc falls back to manual references so the check doesn't stall.
How quickly does Zinc complete criminal checks in Ireland?
Zinc completes criminal court checks in Ireland with a mean turnaround of 0.35 days. The search runs through the Courts Service database, covering everything from the District Court up to the Supreme Court, with a seven-year lookback for reporting.
What data protection rules apply to pre-employment checks in Ireland?
Pre-employment checks in Ireland sit under GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Employment Equality Acts. Employers need the candidate's consent, and can only process data that's necessary and proportionate to the role. Zinc manages that consent digitally and keeps audit-ready records for every check.