Mr. Pat Farrell:

I will deal with the labour issue and my colleagues will deal with the other matters. As we said, horticulture is a very labour-intensive sector, especially with regard to fruit and mushrooms. In general, we still have to pick the fruit and it is not for the processing sector. We find that, despite some perceptions out there, we need a very skilled labour force to harvest our fruit. In the context of food waste, during the height of summer and even in September, temperatures were up to 27° or 28°. That produces a major flush of fruit and because it is a perishable product, certain crops, for example, raspberries and strawberries, have to be picked that day. We need workers who can pick that fruit in an efficient manner and get it picked within a working day, so it is very important that we have skilled workers to do that.

Second, not only do they have to get the fruit picked, but with a lot of product, half the job is getting good fruit produced and then getting it to the market. It is no different to producing milk from a good dairy cow, good potatoes or a good field of barley: you then have to harvest that crop and keep the quality up to the time it gets to the consumer. When strawberries are grown initially, especially the first flush of strawberries, the skin tends to be weak and soft. We either have to stem pick those strawberries, which takes longer because they have to be picked off the stem, or, if we have very skilled pickers, when the skin gets tougher, we can roll pick, as it is called. These are two different things and, obviously, we need very skilled and dextrous people to do that.

We are lucky with our seasonal workers because, in most years, we get people returning again. They come mainly from Bulgaria at this time but every year it is more difficult to get people to come back. There are other opportunities in Europe and while it is great that economies are going well and there is almost full employment, it creates a problem for us. It is no different to any other sector, such as the IT sector here in Ireland. Because it is a competitive sector, we want to get the best of the best and we want access to the most skilled people. Every company wants that.

Work permits were mentioned. We want to access the same labour pool as companies in the UK, Germany or Spain. They have access to bespoke seasonal schemes so they can basically get workers from any part of the world and they can pick the best of the best, and certain nationalities are better at certain jobs. That is what we are asking for. It is in the national strategy and we support the general idea that there is a need for the introduction of a bespoke seasonal workers scheme. I know there are the two pilot schemes, which are extremely welcome, but we need one that is bespoke for the soft fruit sector, where we have people for four or five months of the year, when we require them. It suits them to come to Ireland for the four or five months and to then go home again. They want that. They do not want to live in Ireland full-time, and it is similar to how Irish people travelled years ago. I hope that answers the question.

I believe there is a work permits Bill going through stage three of the Oireachtas or something like that. I think it is the Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Like everyone else in horticulture strategy and as per the national strategy document, we would welcome a bespoke scheme. Like we said earlier, I am not looking for handouts or anything like that. If other European countries have access to these schemes, should it not be a level playing field? We are in a Single Market. We welcome the move by the Government and all Oireachtas Members on the new Teagasc apprentice schemes. It was introduced for horticulture. We have been looking for that for a long time. We have now registered with Teagasc. It is a step up again of another skilled worker in agronomy and areas like that. To be fair, we must welcome those policy developments.