By: JJ Baird

The gap, in numbers 

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is currently recruiting Cyber Security Specialists at €87,510 to €109,216. That is the public-sector benchmark, set by the state body charged with defending Ireland's critical infrastructure. Private-sector roles competing for the same candidates routinely advertise €15,000 to €25,000 below that range and then wonder why interviews are not converting. 

From our own 2026 searches, here is what we are actually seeing across the Irish cyber market, permanent and contract side by side: 

Why the gap is widening, not closing 

Three structural pressures are pushing salaries up faster than client budgets are moving. 

1. Regulatory load. NIS2 transposition and DORA enforcement have created a wave of demand for compliance-literate security professionals, roles that did not exist 24 months ago. ENISA's 2024 Threat Landscape report flagged compliance specialists as one of the most acute pan-European shortages, and Ireland sits at the sharp end given its concentration of EU-headquartered financial and tech firms. 

1. Concentrated demand. Ireland hosts the EU operations of Meta, Google, Microsoft and Apple. The NCSC's 2024 Annual Report recorded a 23% year-on-year increase in significant cyber incidents. Every one of those organisations is hiring from the same pool you are. 

1. Workforce constraint. The ISC2 2025 Cybersecurity Workforce Study found that 23% of cybersecurity professionals say their organisation is losing high-demand talent because salaries are not competitive. The shortage isn't always about who exists. It's about who will say yes. 

What the numbers are telling us 

Two things stand out. First, contract rates have actually taken a dip in 2026. The €800 to €900 per day roles that anchored the market a year ago are harder to come by, as long-term programmes wind down and clients rebase their contractor spend. 

Second, and more importantly, is what happens when a candidate resigns. Clients panic. They did not see it coming, and they will throw the kitchen sink at the person to keep them: meeting salary, adding flexibility, promising anything. Where that works, the candidate stays. Where it fails, the client then goes to market to backfill at a lower salary than the one they just tried to match, with the same expectation of skill. That maths does not work, and the vacancy stays open. 

The hidden cost of underpaying 

Cyber roles in Ireland regularly sit unfilled for 18 months or more. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment lists cybersecurity professionals on the Critical Skills Employment Permit eligible occupations list, which is official state recognition of a shortage occupation. Every month a role is open is a month of unmitigated risk exposure, and under NIS2 personal liability now attaches to directors for failures in cyber risk management. 

In other words, the cheap hire is the expensive one. The role is either filled at market rate, or it sits open while the regulatory clock keeps ticking. 

We recently worked with a client on a GRC Lead role that had been open for four months before we were brought in. We ran the search, presented candidates, and the client made an offer that was accepted. During the notice period, the candidate's existing employer counter-offered with an extra €20,000 and greater flexibility on remote working, and the candidate stayed. The client then had an additional eight weeks with no one in the seat, and mounting pressure on an already stretched team. We found a second strong candidate who is now settled and thriving in the role, but the delay was avoidable, and it was expensive. 

What good looks like in 2026 

The clients getting cyber roles filled in 6 to 8 weeks rather than 6 to 8 months are doing three things differently: 

• They benchmark against the NCSC scale, not their internal IT pay bands. 

• They write specs around capability and trustworthiness rather than exhaustive technology checklists. 

• They give recruiters and hiring managers the authority to move on offer within the same week as final interview. 

When we take a brief and review the salary a client has in mind, we always encourage an open mind. We ask two questions: have you hired this type of candidate recently, and are you sighted on what the current market is paying for the profile? We then run a detailed market analysis on the specific role and present the findings back before we go out. It is a small step at the start of a search that saves months at the end of one. 

The bottom line 

The Irish cyber market in 2026 is not short of people in the abstract. It is short of people willing to take roles at the price clients have historically wanted to pay. Closing that gap is the single highest-leverage move any Irish organisation can make on its security hiring this year. 

The market is changing quickly, and every hiring challenge is a little different. If you'd like an honest view of where your salaries, hiring process or role requirements sit against the rest of the Irish market, I'm always happy to have a conversation. No agenda, just practical insight from the front line of cyber recruitment. 

The Recruitment Company 

This post was written by John James Baird, Cybersecurity recruiter at The Recruitment Company, the recruitment agency Dublin businesses and candidates trust across Ireland, Europe, and the UK. If you need help with recruitment, call JJ at +353 1 697 2548 or email [email protected]

Sources 

• National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) Ireland, National Cyber Security Strategy:https://www.ncsc.gov.ie/strategy/ 
• NCSC Ireland, Annual Reports (incident data):https://www.ncsc.gov.ie/ 
• Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Critical Skills Employment Permit Eligible Occupations List:https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/what-we-do/workplace-and-skills/employment-permits/employment-permit-eligibility/highly-skilled-eligible-occupations-list/ 
• ISC2 2025 Cybersecurity Workforce Study:https://www.isc2.org/Insights/2025/12/2025-ISC2-Cybersecurity-Workforce-Study 
• ENISA, European Union Agency for Cybersecurity Threat Landscape Reports:https://www.enisa.europa.eu/topics/cyber-threats/threats-and-trends 
• Cyber Ireland, National Cyber Security Cluster:https://cyberireland.ie/