Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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241. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the progress being made to meet the demand for courses (details supplied); if additional personnel will be recruited to enable demand to be met and to eliminate the delays that occur for farmers wishing to participate on such courses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6282/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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My Department has been working closely with Teagasc to resolve staffing issues in relation to the adult Green Cert arising from the introduction of the Young Farmers Scheme and National Reserve in 2015, which required successful applicants to complete a FETAC level 6 (Green Cert) or its equivalent in order to qualify for payment.

As Teagasc did not have sufficient capacity to deal with the surge in applications for the Green Cert, it was agreed that additional temporary resources would be provided to rapidly expand the number of Green Cert places. In conjunction with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Teagasc was approved to appoint 70 temporary education officers in the period 2014 to 2016 on two year contracts of employment; 7 temporary administrators were also approved in 2015 for a two year period to address the huge volume of course administration that arose from the unprecedented demand. The additional resources helped Teagasc to enrol 4,000 adult learners since late 2014.

As Teagasc continue to experience strong demand for the Green Cert, I understand that they are actively considering a range of resource options to address projected demand on a phased basis from 2017 to 2019. I am pleased to confirm that Teagasc’s request for 15 new temporary posts to meet acute demand pressure points in some geographical locations was recently approved by my Department. Assignment of those posts to particular locations is an operational matter for Teagasc.