Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

About this time last year, the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Humphreys, announced a pilot project for work permits for the agriculture sector, consisting of 500 permits for horticulture, 250 for meat, and 50 for dairy. A year has passed and I would like to see an examination of the pilot, including its successes and what review has taken place. This stems from the fact that there are a lot of complaints about delays in the issuing of work permits to foreign workers to come here to work on farms, particularly in the dairy sector. I know only 50 visas were allocated to that sector but there seem to be inordinate delays. Farmers have scaled up their dairy farms, invested heavily, and are finding they cannot do the work. They are under serious stress and pressure as they cannot get workers in on their farms. If we are to continue to support our agriculture sector, we have to sort this out. When we look for skilled farm workers from abroad, we are competing with New Zealand, the Gulf states, and Canada, and there are no issues around getting visas and work permits in those countries, so we need to up our game. It deserves a fuller debate, and I ask the Leader to invite the Minister to the House to have a discussion about farming, farm workers, work permits, and the terms and conditions of people who are working on farms as employees.