Written answers

Tuesday, 8 April 2025

Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Departmental Staff

Photo of Peadar TóibínPeadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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748. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of technical staff grades of technical agricultural officer supervisory agricultural officer and district superintendent that retired or transferred out from agricultural environmental schemes division in 2022, 2023, 2024 and to date in 2025, in tabular form. [16515/25]

Photo of Martin HeydonMartin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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The table below provides details on the numbers of technical grades that retired/transferred out from the Agricultural Environmental Schemes Division in 2022, 2023, 2024 and to date in 2025 as requested by the Deputy.

Technical Grades Retired/Transferred out Agricultural Environmental Schemes Division
Grade 2022 2023 2024 2025
District Superintendent 1 4 0 1
Supervisory Agricultural Officer 7 10 3 1
Technical Agricultural Officer 4 1 5 0

Photo of Peadar TóibínPeadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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749. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of technical grade positions for all the grades (technical agricultural officer, supervisory agricultural officer and district superintendent) that have been advertised and subsequently filled for each of these grades; and the number of positions that are currently vacant in the agricultural environmental schemes division and the location of these vacancies, per county. [16516/25]

Photo of Martin HeydonMartin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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My Department is committed to ensuring that a skilled and motivated workforce is in place to meet its priority business needs. Workforce planning processes are utilised to identify our requirements across all technical grade streams and locations, and to ensure a long-term, proactive and strategic plan through which current and future staffing needs are addressed.

Overall staffing levels and required skills are continually monitored to ensure business needs are met, subject to the limits of the annual estimates process and approvals by the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform.

My Department regularly advertises and fills positions across multiple grade streams, including the grades of Technical Agricultural Officer, Supervisory Agricultural Officer and District Superintendent as specifically referenced by the Deputy. The filling of posts in these grades is evident in the number of officers currently assigned to said roles, with the table below providing additional details:

Grade Number Serving on 31/03/2025
Technical Agricultural Officer 402
Supervisory Agricultural Officer 167
District Superintendent 91
Recruitment is currently underway in my Department and posts continue to be filled through a number of mechanisms, including competitions through Public Jobs and my Department’s Human Resources Competitions Team. I remain acutely conscious of the need for my Department to provide prompt and efficient services. To support this, all critical staffing vacancies are filled as soon as possible when suitable candidates become available, taking into account the balance of needs and resources across my Department. The table below provides details of the number of technical vacancies currently in Agricultural Environmental Schemes Division by county.
Number of Technical Vacancies in Agricultural Environmental Scheme Division County
2 Cork
1 Cavan
1 Mayo
1 Waterford
1 Wexford
1 Galway
7 Total

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