Farm Relief Services (FRS) has reported that demand for labour on farms has increased by 20% since last year.

This week it welcomed the announcement to permit non-EU workers entry to work in the agricultural sector.

Peter Byrne, CEO of FRS Network said: “FRS has been actively raising the matter to Government of issuing work permits and allow non-EU citizens access to work in the agricultural sector to help alleviate the lack of domestic and EU supply of skilled farm workers and welcome this announcement today.

Positive step

“Although we do believe that the announcement to allow 50 dairy farm work permits is a positive step, we would like to see this broaden in numbers and areas in the future.

“We are open to accepting applicants and hope to select and train future FRS operators from this pool of workers to meet the growing demand for labour in the market.”

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