The number of vacant posts in DAERA has fallen in recent months, but still stands at around 800, the department’s permanent secretary, Katrina Godfrey, told last Thursday’s Stormont Agriculture Committee.

During the meeting, the DAERA chief was quizzed on whether those staffing pressures had implications for the ability of her department to deal with ongoing animal health challenges, including bluetongue, avian flu and bovine TB.

She said there were vacancies within DAERA vet service, but posts had been prioritised to ensure “we have the right people in the right place”.

“Like everywhere else we find it challenging to recruit and retain veterinary professional colleagues. Would I like to have more vets? Absolutely,” said Godfrey.

She confirmed work is being done by the Department of Finance to look at professions within the civil service where there is evidence of difficulty recruiting and retaining staff because pay is too low.

“Veterinary professionals is one of them. As you can imagine, the bar to prove that civil servants need to pay more is not low,” said Godfrey.