Mr. Tony Pettit:

We are allocating the bulk of the green certificates to the education officers that we got towards the north west. It is an area of demand across the north west and the north east.

The education needs of farmers are changing and increasing. There are different categories of farmers and different levels of programmes and courses. On the green certificate, people complete a level 5 certificate in agriculture and a level 6 specific purpose in farming. People who may be going back into a more full-time and commercial level of farming are not required to go beyond that. We would recommend, however, that they would take the level 6 advanced certificate and certainly look at the apprenticeship groups when they come on stream. We accept that not every farmer is going beyond the minimal requirement for schemes. It is advisable that some would take up further courses in terms of the nature of their farming, however.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Revenue own the schemes and incentives directed at young farmers. As such, we do not directly influence those, other than that we would be feeding back to the Department in terms of likely demand scenarios. We would be indicating where we see pressure points arising in terms of demand, the need for us to put on more courses and hire more staff. The Department has accommodated Teagasc in that regard. There have been 117 temporary education officers for whom we have secured sanction over that period.