Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MRCI) has said non-EU workers living in Ireland have to pay significantly more for residence permits to live here than they do in most other EU countries.
Its Fair Fees Campaign Group states that the Irish Residence Permit card costs €300, while a similar permit costs €16 in Greece, €20 in Austria and €80 in Luxembourg.
Non-EU workers and students, who live in Ireland for three months or longer, are required to register for an Irish Residence Permit card at a cost of €300.
It is a fee that the MRCI said in-demand workers from nurses to chefs, engineers to IT specialists, agri-food workers to truck drivers often have to pay every year and sometimes more frequently.
If these individuals have family members who are aged 16 years of age or older, they also must pay this fee.
The fee was €100 when it was first introduced in 2006. Two years later, it increased to €150.
In 2012, amid austerity measures, it was doubled to €300 where it has stayed ever since.
The Fair Fees Campaign Group said information released by the Department of Justice shows that this is 15 times what it costs to produce and deliver each card.
It also said that the fee is far in excess of what many other European countries charge for similar residence permits.
It has launched a petition calling for the Irish Residence Permit card fee to be reduced to a level more in line with those charged for other State registrations, such as the €75 it costs for a passport or the €55 it costs for a driver's licence.
The Community Work Lead with the MRCI criticised the cost of the card compared to what it costs to produce, but the Government has said the fee also helps cover administration costs.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mairéad McDevitt said: "We have based our information on PQ's that were submitted to the Department of Justice and from that, we've gleaned that this is for the production and delivery of each card.
"So, we are confident that any administrative costs are covered within that."
Last year, the Government collected €58m from the card. Ms McDevitt said that while the money goes into the running of immigration services, "it's not aligned with the running costs".
She said that the fee was doubled in 2012 under the then justice minister Alan Shatter, but she said it has not been reviewed since then.
