Notary fees in Ireland — what to expect

Further reading from this practice: Blockchain and Irish Law, What is a Notary Public in Cork?. For Hugh's background and qualifications, see Hugh Phelan.

Notarial fees in Ireland are not set by statute. The Faculty of Notaries Public Ireland does not publish a fee scale. Individual notaries set their own fees, on a basis that reflects the work involved, the urgency, the destination of the document, and the responsibility the notary is taking on. This makes the question "what does it cost" harder to answer than it should be.

This is a working note on what an Irish notary actually charges in 2026, what the headline number includes, what it does not, and how a client can compare quotes without being misled.

The components of a notarial fee

The notarial fee in Ireland is typically built from three components. First, the time spent by the notary on the matter — reviewing the document, drafting the certificate, conducting the appointment, and following the file through to apostille. Second, the responsibility the notary is taking on, which scales with the value, complexity and consequence of the underlying transaction. Third, any disbursements — the Department of Foreign Affairs apostille fee, embassy legalisation fees, courier costs, and translation costs where the document is in a foreign language.

The time component varies with the document. A simple statutory declaration takes fifteen minutes of notarial time and an hour of file work. A corporate closing bundle with twenty documents takes an afternoon of notarial time and a day or more of file work. The fees scale accordingly.

The responsibility component is harder to scale. A notary who notarises a document worth a few hundred euro takes less responsibility than a notary who notarises a power of attorney for a property transaction worth a few million. The fee reflects the difference but the differential is modest — typically a multiple of two or three, not a multiple of ten — because the notarial discipline is the same in both cases.

Working ranges for typical matters

The following ranges are the working figures in this Cork practice in 2026. They are illustrative, not binding, and any specific quote should be obtained in writing before the appointment.

A single notarial act on a simple document — a statutory declaration, a certified copy, a witness signature — typically sits in the range of €100 to €175. This excludes the apostille and any postage.

A power of attorney for foreign use, including the notarial certificate, identification of the signatory and review of the underlying instrument, typically sits in the range of €175 to €300. The range reflects the destination and the complexity of the underlying matter.

A corporate closing bundle with five to ten documents — board resolution, power of attorney, certificate of incumbency, certified copies of constitutional documents, specimen signatures — typically sits in the range of €600 to €1,200. Larger bundles are scoped at the outset.

An apostille from the Department of Foreign Affairs is €40 per document for the standard service and €80 for the same-day service. These are statutory fees and are passed through to the client at cost.

Embassy legalisation for non-Hague Convention destinations runs from €60 to €250 per document depending on the embassy. The fees are passed through to the client at cost.

Same-day appointments attract a premium that reflects the rescheduling of other diary work. The premium typically runs at twenty-five to fifty per cent above the standard fee, with the precise figure agreed at booking.

Why the fees are not statutory

The absence of a statutory fee scale is a feature of the Irish notarial profession, not a defect. The work varies too much for a scale to be useful. A statutory declaration for a Cork resident going to a Polish bank is not the same instrument as a multi-jurisdictional power of attorney for a $50 million transaction with parallel filings in Delaware, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands, even though the notarial act on each is technically of the same type.

The fees instead reflect what notaries in established practice charge for established categories of work, with adjustments for unusual matters. The Faculty's training and supervision ensures consistency of practice; the fees emerge from the market for the work.

For the client, the absence of a scale means that comparing quotes requires care. A quote of €100 for a power of attorney is probably either an under-quote that will increase when the file is scoped, or a quote from a notary who has not yet examined the underlying instrument. A quote of €600 is probably a reasonable scope figure for a typical foreign power of attorney. A quote of €2,000 for the same matter is probably a top-of-market figure from a firm whose practice is concentrated in the high end.

What to ask before booking

Three questions, asked at the time of first contact, will give the client a reasonable basis for understanding the fee.

First: what is the destination of the document? The notary's fee for an instrument destined for England may differ from the same instrument destined for Saudi Arabia, because the notarial work, the apostille or legalisation route, and the receiving form are different.

Second: what is included in the fee? A quote that includes the notarial act, the apostille fee, the courier costs and any embassy legalisation is comparing on a different basis from a quote that includes only the notarial act. A clear written scope avoids the surprise of additional disbursements.

Third: what is the timetable? An urgent matter that requires same-day notarial work and same-day apostille will be more expensive than the same matter scoped two weeks in advance. The premium for urgency is real and should be priced at booking.

The notarial fee in context

The notarial fee is rarely the largest cost on a cross-border legal matter. For a typical Cork-to-foreign transaction, the legal fees on the underlying advice — Irish solicitor, foreign solicitor, foreign notary at destination — run to many multiples of the notarial fee. The notarial fee is a small line item in a larger budget.

The exception is the simple personal matter — a single document for foreign use — where the notarial fee is the entire legal cost. For these matters, the working figure is the €150 to €300 range that covers the notarial act and the apostille. For anything more complex, the file should be scoped in writing at the outset.

For a related working note on same-day notarial appointments and the premium that attaches to urgency, see same-day notary appointments in Cork. To book a notarial appointment with Hugh Phelan, call (021) 489-7134 or visit phelansolicitors.com.