Education and the availability of labour have been highlighted as “hugely important areas” by the new chairman of Teagasc, Liam Herlihy.
Herlihy was speaking to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine earlier this week on Tuesday (October 23) following his recent appointment to the role.
The new chairman of the authority highlighted waiting lists for students seeking an agricultural education as being a key cause of concern, noting that the issue varied depending on the part of the country, with Co. Donegal having a particularly long waiting list, as flagged by local TD Charlie McConalogue.
Speaking to the committee, Herlihy said: “Education in farming is hugely important. Teagasc must keep abreast of that – and that is why I’m so conscious that we recruit the brightest and the best and endeavour to retain them.
“We cannot retain all of them but we live in a digital era. We need young people that are well capable of communicating with our younger farmers in particular, because, while the young Teagasc advisors are the future of Teagasc, the young farmers are the future of agriculture – and things are changing.
Farming practices are changing. We need farmers that are high-tech; embracing technology whether it be grass measurement, whatever the case may be.
“But equally interchanging in a very important way with the Moorepark researchers, where that has fed into the apprenticeship scheme as well.”
Labour
Herlihy also highlighted the issue of labour on farms going forward, advocating for non-national workers for farms with labour requirements.
The former Glanbia chairman – who has also served as FBD chairman – said that, with the building trade picking up, workers would be leaving the agricultural sector.
“One thing that I would be very conscious of is labour and the availability of labour is hugely important, particularly in an agri context.
“What I would say in relation to our own particular farm, where I would have spent many years being chairman of Glanbia and we didn’t have one of our own farming at that time, I was very fortunate that we had good staff that were with us from Poland; they were non-Irish people and they are still with us today.
So, non-nationals coming to Ireland; something like that is hugely important.
“The building boom is about to get going again, and that certainly will take people from the agri space as it did in the past. So non-Irish people are something that is important.
“But equally it is important that they be well paid, well accommodated and well treated within the agri sector to ensure that we have continuity of supply there,” the chairman contended.