Last autumn Teagasc looked to establish a new national panel from which temporary Agricultural Development Officer vacancies in the areas of advisory and education were to be filled.

When the deadline closed in December Teagasc had received over 220 applications for the posts, according to a spokesperson.

“Over the Christmas period a detailed short-listing process took place which marked qualifications and previous relevant experience was used to short list down to 90 applicants who were called for interview.”

The spokesperson said interviews took place between the Jan 28 and February 3.

At the end of the process, Teagasc hopes to have ‘around 70 people‘ listed on the panel. It says temporary vacancies will be filled from this panel as they arise.

According to the Teagasc spokesperson, in selecting applicants for the panel it looked for competencies in animal husbandry, crop husbandry, farm management, soil science, practical farm skills and a knowledge of our education system.

“We have found people with these required competencies who have the potential to be good lecturers and agricultural advisers.”

Further recruitment

Teagasc already has a panel from which permanent posts are filled.

“Both our permanent panel, and this new temporary panel will run until June 2017 if they are not exhausted before then.”

Teagasc is only now returning to the jobs market after it confirmed last autumn that the six-year moratorium on recruitment had been lifted.

Since 2009, Teagasc has only been filling ‘mission critical’ posts after the Government imposed a ban on widespread recruitment for the organisation during the early days of the Financial Crisis.

However, late last year the Department of Agriculture confirmed to Teagasc new arrangements which will provide it with discretion over new appointments.

This new arrangement will allow Teagasc to recruit for new posts and replace staff that retire, however the organisations total permanent pay bill has been capped at €63.2m for 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Teagasc has said that the new arrangements will allow to move immediately to fill a significant number of critical vacancies in the organisation.