Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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534. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the steps he is taking to support farmers in hiring agricultural workers and to encourage more people take up work as agricultural workers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22739/23]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Food Vision 2030, our shared stakeholder-led strategy for the future of the agri-food sector includes a goal to “Attract and Nurture Diverse and Inclusive Talent”.

This recommends five actions for the sector: employers in the agri-food industry will develop an education, skills and talent attraction and retention strategy; they will ensure decent work and address labour shortages; education and training programmes, including new apprenticeships, will be kept under review to ensure they respond to needs such as in the areas of environmental sustainability; they will promote and improve gender balance at all levels, but particularly at senior management and board level; and they will promote and develop initiatives to improve diversity and inclusion.

The agri-food sector currently employs almost 165,000 people, representing 6.5% of total employment, of which just over 100,000 are working in primary agriculture. However, many farm holders and their family members work part -time on the land in addition to their main employment and the CSO census in 2020 indicated that there were 278,580 family and regular non-family workers on Irish farms. Ireland is currently very close to full employment with the unemployment rate for April 2023 at just 3.9% and this is putting some pressure on attracting and retaining employees.

In sectors such as horticulture and dairy where there has been difficulty recruiting enough labour from within Ireland and the European Economic Area, my Department has worked closely with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (DETE) to ensure that there are employment permits made available to recruit additional labour, while recognising that this should be the last resort for filling vacancies.

My Department is working closely with DETE on the introduction of a seasonal employment permit facility in new employment permit legislation currently before the Oireachtas.

I will continue to work closely with the sector to help ensure that there is a vibrant workforce available to drive the agriculture sector, despite the challenges posed by having close to full employment.