Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The 2020 census of agriculture showed that the agricultural labour force amounted to 278,600 people, with 26.96% of these being female and 73.04% male. Data on farm structure in 2016 showed that, of the 137,100 family farms, females were registered as being in charge of only 12%. Just 3.8% of farms are registered with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine as being in joint female and male names. Some 26.96% of the workforce is made up of women but the number of females deemed as being in charge by the Minister's Department is very low. An EU workforce survey shows 40.1% of the agriculture workforce being women. We have a lot of challenges in this area.

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