Calls for Government to issue 1,000 work permits for farming sector

The Government needs to issue 1,000 work permits urgently for the farming sector, it has been claimed.

Currently 150 work permits for non-EU nationals had been allocated for farm workers this year, but it was “not nearly enough”, said Colin Donnery, chief executive of the FRS (Farm Relief Services) Network, a co-operative organisation for farmers founded in 1980.

For the first time at the National Ploughing Championships, FRS set about trying to recruit 300 farm workers, mostly for the dairy sector, but it was a big ask, Mr Donnery admitted. Farming is facing the same labour shortages as many sectors of the economy post Covid-19, but its problems are even more acute. Many farm workers in Ireland were recruited from eastern European countries, but that supply of labour has largely dried up.

“It is extremely difficult. Economies in eastern Europe have lifted up. A lot of workers are going into Germany and driving home at [the] weekend,” he explained. “We lost a lot of these people through Covid-19. They went back home and there is massive demand out there.”

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Mr Donnery said there was interest over the course of the week from about 250 people, most of them Irish, including dry stock farmers who were looking for part-time work on the side and students looking for some extra income. He hoped to fill about 100 posts.

As farming has become more sophisticated and technology-driven, wages are rising in the sector and experienced farm workers are coveted. “Farmers are over-stretching themselves trying to do everything. In spring they are getting three or four hours’ asleep. From a mental health point of view and from a health and safety point of view, it is unsustainable.”

Trainee farm workers usually start at €13 an hour and rises from there. “We are telling farmers that if they want really good people, they are going to have to pay them. Traditionally it is seen as a low-level job, but then you are looking at a worker operating a €100,000 tractor.

“When you look at it, farmers are investing in milking parlours, machinery and tractors. They are looking to cut costs on labour and it is really ‘penny wise and pound foolish’ as the saying goes.”

The State’s first apprenticeship scheme for farmers was announced by Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris at the event on Thursday.

Mr Harris said there would be three apprenticeship programmes in farming which would accept students from the new academic year. There will be a €2,000 incentive for each farmer who decides to take on an apprentice.