Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy McEntee has been raising this matter consistently with me for the past few months. I very much appreciate the important contribution the Teagasc advisory service is making in assisting the development of the agriculture and food sector and in providing advice and support to farm families, particularly at this time, given the opportunities there are for expansion and growth. The service engages with 60,000 farmers per annum, of whom approximately 40,000 are contracted clients. We continue to require a strong input from Teagasc advisers to support sustainable and profitable farming into the future.

My Department has been actively working with Teagasc to ease staffing difficulties in the organisation. Within the constraints of the moratorium, more than 60 permanent appointments were authorised on an exceptional basis since 2009. A further 20 contract teachers were approved in the agricultural colleges to meet the demand for green certificate courses. Teagasc also employs 190 non-Exchequer funded contract staff outside the moratorium framework to deliver advisory and research programmes. The announcement by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in budget 2014 regarding delegated sanction for staffing arrangements will provide greater discretion to Departments and State agencies over staffing levels, but strictly within an overall pay framework. My Department has submitted a pay and staff numbers strategy to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for consideration in respect of the State bodies that operate under the aegis of the Department, including Teagasc. It is expected that the delegated sanction arrangements will be finalised shortly and will provide some flexibility to fill critical posts within agreed pay ceilings.

In the interim, my Department, in conjunction with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, has approved Teagasc to fill a small number of front-line posts in the advisory service. The allocation of advisers to particular locations is an operational matter for Teagasc to determine, but I understand it intends to appoint a dairy adviser to the Louth-Meath-Dublin region shortly.

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