Possible reasons why RPNs may not be available

Employers may not have received the expected number of RPNs.

In most cases, the employer will be able to use their payroll package to identify the employees that do not have an RPN available. The following are possible reasons why an RPN may not be available along with background information and guidance to address these:

The employee may not be registered with Revenue.

While it is possible that the employee may have a valid PPSN, if the employee is not yet registered with Revenue for PAYE then neither a Tax Credit certificate nor an RPN can be issued for that employee.
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When an employee starts their first job in Ireland, they will need to register with Revenue. This includes employees who are non-resident.
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If an employee has previously received a Tax Credit Certificate from Revenue then this would indicate that they are already registered and do not need to register again.
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If they have not previously received a Tax Credit Certificate and are not registered on MyAccount Jobs and Pensions then they may have to register with Revenue for PAYE. Employers may refer the employee to the Jobs and pensions section of the Revenue website for further information.

The employee or Director is not currently linked to the employer on Revenue records.

Revenue will only issue an RPN to an employer when the employee is linked to that employer via an active employment. The employer is required to advise Revenue of all its employments.
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An Employee will not be linked if the employment start was not previously advised to Revenue or if the employment has been ceased. Employers should check to ensure they haven?t inadvertently ceased an employee in this or a previous submission/list of employees/P45.
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From 1/1/2019, to notify Revenue of an employment the employer should either:
use the new direct reporting features of their PMOD enabled payroll package to notify Revenue of the commencement of an employment (for more information see your payroll software manual), or use ROS to manually complete a create RPN request

Using a PPSN that ends in two letters and the last letter is a W.

Historically, on marriage, a wife assumed her husband's Tax Reference number with the letter 'W' added to the end of the number. This practice has ceased and all taxpayers are now issued with an individual PPSN.
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For further information on PPSNs see: DEASP's website or Revenue's information on PPSNs.
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Where DEASP have issued a new individual PPSN to replace the old 'W' number then:

There is an active exclusion order in place for the employee.

If there is an active PAYE exclusion order in place then an RPN will not be available for download.

Date entered in the Date of last RPN when downloading RPNs.
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The ROS option Request RPNs by Online Form allows employers to manually download RPNs.
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By leaving the Date of last RPN field blank, all available RPNs will be returned. Only enter a date in this field if you are specifically looking for RPNs changed since a specified date.

Other reason specific to the employee.

There may be additional reasons that an RPN is not available for an employee, such as a change to marital status, bereavement, redistribution of credits etc.
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Due to taxpayer confidentiality Revenue will not be able to discuss these aspects with an employer.
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To resolve these, the employee should be advised to contact Revenue to address these issues (on 01-7383636 or via MyEnquiries).
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If there is insufficient time for the employee to resolve such situations with Revenue then the employer should apply Emergency Tax rules to the employee's payments.
If the employer has checked each of the above and is satisfied that they do not apply, then they can either apply Emergency Tax rules for individual employees, or contact the Employer Helpline for further assistance on 01-7383638 or via MyEnquiries.