Most of what a parent needs to know about child acting in Ireland is not about talent. It is about who is asking, what they want, what it costs, and whether the arrangement in front of you is the kind a well-run production makes or the kind that takes money from families. This page is the decision. The licence and the law is the paperwork.
Start with the child's interest, not the adult's ambition
If the child is curious, enjoys performing and responds well to the process, that is a healthy place to begin. If they are anxious, reluctant, or doing it to please an adult, that matters more than any amount of ability.
A useful test: who brings it up? A child who asks to do it again after a workshop, who plays at it unprompted, who is disappointed when it ends — that is interest. A child who says yes when asked is being agreeable, which is not the same thing and does not survive a six-hour day on a cold set.
What the work is actually like
Screen work is mostly waiting. A child may be at the location for eight hours and perform for two. The same short scene is shot repeatedly from different angles, which is tedious for adults and much harder for children. There is often no audience, no applause and no obvious sense of having done well.
Children who love the attention of a stage sometimes dislike a set intensely, and there is nothing wrong with discovering that. Better to find out on a short film than three weeks into a series.
The legal part, briefly
Children under 16 cannot simply be employed in Ireland. A production needs a licence from a government minister, applied for at least 21 days in advance under the Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act 1996. The licence carries conditions: maximum hours present on location by age band, meal and rest breaks, a chaperone who may not supervise more than twelve children, alternative teaching if the child misses more than a week of school, and earnings paid into an account in the child's own name.
The production handles this, not you — but your written consent forms part of the application, so you will know it is happening. If nobody has mentioned a licence and the shoot is close, ask.
The full requirements, with the hours by age and a checklist for the day, sourced to the Workplace Relations Commission.
Education still matters
Screen work should fit around school and health, not quietly override them. Where a child will miss more than a week, the production must arrange appropriate alternative teaching, and the school principal's agreement to the absence is part of the licence application.
Keep the school informed early rather than after the fact. Most Irish schools are reasonable about a few days for a genuine production; they are considerably less reasonable when they find out afterwards.
Representation: how to tell a real agency from a business that sells hope
This is where families lose money, and it is worth being blunt about the signals.
What legitimate representation looks like
- They are selective. A real agency turns children away, because their reputation with casting directors depends on the quality of who they send.
- They are paid from your child's earnings, as a percentage commission, after the child is paid. Typically that is the only way they are paid.
- They can name work they have placed and you can verify it independently.
- They are contactable, have a real address, and do not pressure you to decide today.
What should make you stop
- An upfront fee to join, register or be listed. This is the single clearest warning sign in this market.
- A required photography package with a specific photographer, especially one on the premises. You can use any photographer; being told otherwise is a sales tactic.
- Fees for a "portfolio", "web page", "showreel" or "audition training" as a condition of representation.
- Everyone gets in. If nobody is turned away, the product being sold is membership, not casting.
- Pressure and scarcity. "Places close tonight", a scout approaching you in a shopping centre, a deadline that exists only in the conversation.
- Guaranteed work, or implied guarantees. Nobody can promise a child will be cast. Anyone who does is either mistaken or selling.
Our wider guide to spotting casting call red flags applies to children with the volume turned up, because the emotional pressure on a parent is greater and the person being sold to is not the person performing.
Auditions and self-tapes with a child
Keep preparation light. A child who has been drilled reads as drilled, and casting directors are looking for something alive rather than something polished. Run the lines a few times, make it a game, and stop before it becomes work.
Most first rounds are now self-tapes. Shoot it at home, plain wall, good light, phone horizontal, an adult reading the other part off-camera in a flat voice so the child's performance carries. If the child is not enjoying the third take, stop and send the second. Our self-tape guide for Ireland covers the setup; everything in it applies, just shorter.
Do not coach line readings. If the child is struggling with a line, it is usually because they do not know what it means — explain the situation, not the delivery.
On set, the child's wellbeing is the job
You or a chaperone will be present throughout; the licence requires it. Some practical things worth knowing:
- Count the children per chaperone. The limit is twelve. If one person is managing twenty, that is a condition of the licence not being met.
- Know where the child rests. The production must provide somewhere to rest and be occupied between takes, somewhere to change, and proper washing facilities.
- Watch the clock against presence, not performance. The daily limit counts every hour at the location.
- You can stop. If a child is distressed, cold, exhausted or being pushed, ending the day is always available to you and no job is worth overriding it.
Contracts and image usage
Read what you are signing, and read the usage clause specifically. The question is not only what the child is paid, but where their image may appear, for how long, in what territories, and whether it may be reused in future productions or promotional material without further consent.
Increasingly, watch for language permitting the scanning, digitising or synthetic reuse of a performer's likeness or voice. That is a live issue for adult performers and it applies with more force to a child who cannot consent for themselves and will be an adult in a decade. If a clause is broad and the production cannot explain it plainly, that is a reason to ask for it to be narrowed.
Earnings, other than expenses, must be lodged into an account in the child's own name — that is a licence condition, not a preference.
Do not build a public footprint too early
A child does not need a public profile, a follower count or a searchable page to work. Casting for children happens through agencies, schools, workshops and direct approaches, not through browsable directories of children.
Anything published now is published for a long time, and the child had no say in it. The safest position is that nothing about them is public, and that any sharing is with one named person for one named purpose.
When to stop
Stopping is a normal outcome, not a failure. Reasons to stop are: the child has lost interest, it is affecting school or sleep, the family is spending more than it is earning, or the enjoyment has drained out of it. None of those require justification to anyone.
Where CastMe fits
CastMe accounts, Showcase pages and platform tools are for people aged 16 and over. We do not host profiles for children. There is no public page, no upload and no directory listing for anyone under 16 on this site, and that is enforced automatically and checked daily rather than left to policy.
Younger performers are welcome to use the CastMe Kids Playroom, which needs no signup, asks for no name, age, photo, voice, email or location, has no chat, camera or microphone, and creates nothing public. Progress is stored in the browser and can be erased at any time.
When a young performer turns 16, they can create their own CastMe account and build a Showcase then — with their own consent, at an age where the law treats them as able to give it.
Relevant across Ireland
Most Irish screen production is concentrated in Dublin and Wicklow, with regular work in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Northern Ireland. The licensing rules are national and apply wherever the work happens. If you are looking at what is currently casting, our Dublin casting calls page and the full open roles list are updated from live sources, though most listings are for performers aged 16 and over.
Common questions
What age can a child start acting in Ireland?
There is no minimum age in law for being cast; the licensing conditions simply get stricter the younger the child, with specific limits for under-7s. In practice most children start with drama classes or youth theatre, and the readiness that matters is whether they enjoy the repetition.
Should I pay an agency to represent my child?
No. Legitimate representation is paid by commission from work the child actually does. An upfront joining, listing or portfolio fee is the clearest warning sign in this market.
Does my child need professional headshots?
Not to begin with. A clear, recent, well-lit photograph against a plain background, taken on a phone, is adequate for early submissions. Children change appearance quickly, so expensive photography dates fast.
Can my child have a CastMe profile?
Not under 16. They can use the Kids Playroom, which requires no account and creates nothing public.
Who is responsible for the licence?
The employer, meaning the production. Your consent letter and a copy of the signed contract form part of their application.
Final thoughts
The families who do well at this treat it as something the child does, not something the family is invested in. Keep it small, keep school first, pay nobody for the privilege of being considered, and let the child set the pace. If it stops being fun, it has stopped working, whatever the credit list says.