Ireland has been hit by a strong recession. Unemployment is high (~15%), and particularly high amount young people. Many are emigrating to find other work. The media is full of stories about how there are no jobs.
Which is a shame because there is a massive skill shortage if you know programming/sysadmining in Ireland. Companies spend months trying to find employees.
I have siblings working in fields which were quite dependent on the housing bubble and as such they have been out of work for some time.
On the other hand, every IT recruiter I know here is complaining about the lack of candidates and I've had as much work as I've wanted in the past few years.
To be fair a few years ago one quarter of working men worked in construction. That's just crazy.
At least in 2006 it was rather easy to get a tax identification number (I forget what it's called) with a signed affidavit and a witness saying you live at some address, and you can use that to get work. Now, without better documentation the government taxes you at the highest rate possible, and since you won't file you'll never get a penny back.
Also, they worked in card houses, so maybe the documentation requirements weren't as strict as a professional programming environment. Oh, and I'm sure it's all sorts of illegal. But just doing it is easier than it seems. :)
PPS Number
I suspect, but amn't sure, that this is more felxible, and I think they include Northern Ireland aswell, i.e. they include "the island of Ireland".
(Which makes sense, the country now known as Ireland didn't exit until 1922, I'm in my 27s and by grandmother was born in the late 1920s. Someone in the 50s could have a grandparent born in what was then the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.)