Mr. Michael Moroney:

To add to that, back in 2019 labour was becoming an issue. We identified it as an issue that we would have to deal with and which would become more important in our sector. We did apply to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to get a seasonal visa particularly for tractor operators. We suggested that because we know from a lot of experience that at this time of year, during the winter period, that quite large numbers of young people from Ireland go to New Zealand to operate silage equipment in particular. Many of contractors' sons or people who are contracting during their formative years, went to New Zealand and operated machinery. We cannot provide them with a reciprocal agreement here which is very unfortunate. We did apply to get specialist visas from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa because the seasonal workload would suit. Many of the same machines are being used. Many Irish-built machines are being used both in the southern hemisphere and here at home. The seasonal nature would have allowed New Zealand drivers to come here for our summer, which is their winter, and for us to have our drivers go to New Zealand for their harvesting period. That made a lot of sense. The pandemic and so on came along and that affected it and there were some constraints around Irish people going to New Zealand because it became a very closed economy because of Covid. However, longer term, we have applied for visas to allow operators in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in particular where the equipment is equivalent, the people are English speaking and have an agricultural economy quite similar to ours. Therefore, the transition from driving in New Zealand or Australia would not be that difficult so as to come here. Some of our counterparts in Europe, particularly Germany, Holland and Belgium, have engaged with operators from further eastern Europe, with countries such as Bulgaria and Romania, but they have had significant problems with regard to understanding of machines. The level of technology was not present for them there and there was also a language problem going onto farms. None of those problems would arise if we had drivers on a seasonal visa. If a driver comes to us from New Zealand for one season they cannot come back on a visa for a second season. We believe that is a ridiculous situation. There is a real opportunity because of the seasonality of much of our work and in the southern hemisphere. It makes so much sense. Irish farm machinery companies are testing machines with Irish people in New Zealand to have them available for the world market. We should use the same logic and strategy. We have applied to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine on this. For us to get a visa, the process is highly complicated and is simply not affordable in the current circumstances. We would love to have some support from the committee to move that on further.