Labour shortage a threat to farm safety

The sudden expansion of the dairy herd means there is an immediate need for skilled and semi-skilled labour from outside the EU, the IFA has stated in a submission to the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, which has commenced a review of employment permits.

“In most cases, salary and working conditions are not the issue, but the lack of suitable candidates within the existing labour pool,” the IFA said. “Farmers have identified suitably skilled individuals in countries outside the European Economic Area where there is an already established intensive dairy industry but unfortunately due our current work permit regime they are unable to employ them.”

Compact calving was also increasing workload at specific times, it said.

“It is ironic that this shortage of skilled labour in the dairy sector has resulted in a deterioration of the working conditions for many individual farmers, which, among other things, will unfortunately only exacerbate the health and safety on farms.”

In relation to horticulture, the low margins in the sector mean that many of the jobs on offer are at the lower end of the pay scale and are seasonal. This means they are of interest to semi-skilled or unskilled migrant workers.

The improving economy means many of these individuals are moving into jobs in retail and construction.

“In short, despite the improvement in working conditions, etc, on farms, and the fact that Ireland has the second highest minimum wage within the EU, producers are now struggling to source manual labour and production operatives in particular,” the IFA said.