Usually you can do a sell to cover (I think that's what it's called) transaction on these - i.e. sell enough to cover the cost of exercising the options. If you are selling them all then they can just take the amount required to exercise the options. Obviously this only makes sense of the market price is greater than the option price. Bear in mind that exercising the options will probably trigger an income tax liability (most likely payable in 30 days via Form RTSO1) on the difference between the market price and the discounted option price. If you exercise any, hold them and eventually sell at a capital gain with respect to the market price on the day of exercise then such gains will be assessable for CGT as normal. If your scheme is Revenue approved then you may be able to avail of certain tax deferrals but otherwise tax liabilities are payable as normal once triggered. Many employers will engage a broker to provide services to employees and should be able to give you outline information on what you can do here and your potential costs and tax liabilities.