Some 912 people applied last month to the new Agricultural Inspector positions with the Department of Agriculture.

The Department of Agriculture is in the process of recruiting a significant number of Assistant Agricultural Inspectors.

It comes following a significant fall off in recruitment by the Department of Agriculture in recent years which has seen staff numbers fall significantly with 735 staff leaving the Department between 2011 and 2016, while only 171 were hired in the same period.

Applications

  • General Agriculture – 485
  • Dairy/Food Science – 176
  • Chemist (Desk Based) – 42
  • Chemist (Lab Based) – 58
  • Ecotoxicologist – 34
  • Ecology – 117

The successful candidates will become members of the Agricultural Inspectorate team.

The Inspectorate team is responsible for bringing scientific expertise to bear on the development of the Irish agri-food sector, including funding of Irish agri-food research programmes, and on the negotiation and enforcement of European Union and national legislation relating to agriculture.

Also Read: Department publishes details of its new Agricultural Inspector jobs

The current recruitment drive by the Department will see job opportunities cover a wide range of areas and provide opportunities to new graduates and to more experienced professionals.

Roles to be filled include technical officers, agricultural inspectors, administrative posts, food and microbiology laboratory scientists, marine engineers, vets, molecular biologists and ICT roles including applications development, GIS specialists and IT infrastructure development experts.

Speaking at a meeting of the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee recently Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed said that the Department in its 2016 budget estimates has provided for extra resources to solve the difficulties in this area. The Minister said that as many as 200 additional staff are to be hired this year.

The Minister also said that it must be noted that staff levels in the Department over the period 2008-2015 fell by over 28%.