PublicJobs.ie Scraper

Extract structured job listings from PublicJobs.ie — Ireland's official public sector recruitment platform, covering Civil Service competitions, HSE roles, local authority positions, and State Board appointments. No API key required. Supports keyword search, county filtering, job category filtering, and full description extraction.

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Why this scraper?

🏛️ Full public sector coverage

Captures all vacancy types on the platform: Civil Service competitions managed directly by publicjobs, External Recruiter postings from public bodies, and State Board appointments — in a single structured dataset.

🔍 Flexible search and filtering

Filter by keyword, Irish county (all 26 supported), job category, and vacancy type. Results respect every combination of filters simultaneously.

📄 Rich job descriptions

When Fetch detail pages is enabled, each result includes the complete job description in HTML, plain text, and Markdown — along with grade, contract type, working pattern, and organisation website.

♻️ Cross-run repost detection

The actor tracks job IDs across runs using a 90-day deduplication store. Enable Skip reposts to avoid processing vacancies you have already collected.

📅 Date-based filtering

Use Max age (days) to retrieve only recently posted vacancies, ideal for scheduled daily or weekly runs.

💸 Usage-based pricing

Pay only for results you receive — no subscriptions, no flat fees. Combine with Max results to cap spend exactly.

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Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
searchQuery	string	""	Keyword(s) to search for
county	string	""	Irish county name, e.g. Dublin, Cork
category	string	""	Job category, e.g. Administrative, Medical / Health
vacancyType	enum	All	All / publicjobs / External Recruiter / State Boards
maxResults	integer	500	Maximum number of results to return
fetchDetails	boolean	true	Fetch full descriptions and structured fields from detail pages
daysOld	integer	—	Only return jobs posted within this many days
skipReposts	boolean	false	Skip jobs already seen in previous runs
startUrls	array	[]	Specific search result URLs to scrape

County values (case-insensitive): Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary, Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow.

Category values (case-insensitive, partial list): Administrative, Agricultural / Environmental, Business Support, Economics / Finance, Education, Engineering / Architects / Planners, Graduate and Trainee / Junior Management, Legal, Medical / Health, Science / IT / Technology.

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Output schema

{
  "id": "3209",
  "url": "https://publicjobs.tal.net/vx/lang-en-GB/mobile-0/appcentre-1/brand-4/xf-.../candidate/so/pm/1/pl/3/opp/3209-Assistant-ICT-Manager-Dublin-City-Council/en-GB",
  "title": "Assistant ICT Manager - Dublin City Council",
  "organisation": "Dublin City Council",
  "location": "Dublin City Council",
  "county": "Dublin",
  "vacancyType": "publicjobs",
  "grade": "Head of Information Systems",
  "contractType": "Permanent",
  "workingPattern": "Full-Time",
  "roleType": "Local Authority",
  "orgWebsite": "https://www.dublincity.ie/",
  "advertisingDate": "2026-04-02",
  "closingDate": "2026-04-23",
  "publishDate": "2026-04-02",
  "publishDateISO": "2026-04-02",
  "applyUrl": "https://publicjobs.tal.net/vx/.../opp/3209-.../en-GB",
  "description": "<h3>Job summary</h3><p>...</p><h3>Main Duties of the Job</h3><p>...</p>",
  "descriptionText": "Job summary The Assistant ICT Manager...",
  "descriptionMarkdown": "### Job summary\n\nThe Assistant ICT Manager...",
  "contentHash": "a1b2c3d4e5f60718",
  "source": "publicjobs.ie",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-04-09T14:22:00.000Z",
  "isRepost": false,
  "originalPublishDate": null,
  "originalUrl": null,
  "summary": "Assistant ICT Manager - Dublin City Council at Dublin City Council — Dublin City Council"
}

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Examples

Example 1 — All current vacancies

{
  "maxResults": 500,
  "fetchDetails": true
}

Example 2 — Nursing roles in Dublin, last 30 days

{
  "searchQuery": "nurse",
  "county": "Dublin",
  "daysOld": 30,
  "fetchDetails": true
}

Example 3 — Administrative roles only, skip previously seen

{
  "category": "Administrative",
  "vacancyType": "publicjobs",
  "skipReposts": true,
  "fetchDetails": true,
  "maxResults": 200
}

Example 4 — Fast metadata-only scan (no detail pages)

{
  "fetchDetails": false,
  "maxResults": 1000
}

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💰 Pricing

$1.49 per 1,000 results — you only pay for successfully retrieved listings. Failed retries and filtered reposts are never charged.

Results	Cost
100	~$0.15
500	~$0.75
1,000	~$1.49
10,000	~$14.90

Flat-rate alternatives typically charge $29–$49/month regardless of usage. At 1,000 results/month, this scraper costs 95%+ less with no commitment.

Use the Max results cap in the input to control your spend exactly.

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Performance

Run type	Results	Approx. time
All vacancies, list only (fetchDetails: false)	~320	~30 seconds
All vacancies, with details (fetchDetails: true)	~320	~8–12 minutes
Keyword search with details	5–50	~1–3 minutes

PublicJobs.ie is a relatively small board (~300–400 active vacancies at any time). Full runs complete quickly.

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Known limitations

• Apply URL: The applyUrl field points to the publicjobs.tal.net detail page. For some External Recruiter postings, applications are handled on the employer's own website.
• Salary: Salary information is embedded within the job description text (in the Benefits section) when provided. There is no separate structured salary field — salary is null for jobs that do not publish it.
• Advertising date: For some vacancies the advertising date is not shown on the detail page; the date from the list page is used in that case.
• Irish language postings: The scraper targets the English-language version of the platform. Irish (Gaeilge) listings are not included.
• Total vacancies: PublicJobs.ie is a specialist board focused on the Irish public sector. The total active listing count is typically 300–450 vacancies.

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Technical details

• Source: publicjobs.ie — Ireland's official public sector recruitment platform
• Memory: 256 MB
• Repost storage: KeyValueStore publicjobs-ie-job-dedup, 90-day TTL
• Retry: Automatic retry on network errors, exponential backoff, 3 attempts per request

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Additional services

Need a custom actor, additional filters, scheduled runs, or integration support? Send an email to info@unfencedgroup.nl — we build on request.

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