“Over the past 18 months, growers in the industry have been experiencing difficulties with recruiting new staff. At today’s seminar, Teagasc presented the findings of their Labour Force Survey that identified the scale and nature of the problem, which showed an average job vacancy rate of 14% among producers.”, said Brian O’Reilly, Chair of the Horticulture Industry Forum (HIF) “The HIF have agreed eleven recommended measures that chart out a strategy to tackle this crisis and to make horticulture more attractive as a career and as a new business option.” Mr. O’Reilly was speaking at a HIF seminar for Horticulture producers in the Hotel Keadeen, Newbridge today, where attendees learned about plans to improve the labour supply to the industry.
“The pilot permit scheme represented a major change to Ireland’s economic migration policy but it was the correct decision in the face of almost full employment here and a rapidly reducing labour pool in eastern Europe,” stated Andrew Doyle, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. “In addition, the review of the overarching permits system conducted in 2018 contains a number of very useful recommendations for the sector which my Department will work with the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation to implement. However, the sector must also look at what it can do itself to improve its attractiveness as one in which to work and so I welcome the initiative of the HIF to examine these issues in detail at this event today.”
Presentations were made by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation on the new Pilot Work Permit Scheme and by the Work Place Relations Commission on employment rights and obligations. Tom O’Callaghan (Black Earth Innovation) outlined the potential for recruiting staff outside the EU.
