Overseas farm operators from New Zealand, Lithuania and Canada gave positive feedback of their experiences working on Irish farms at a recent FRS (Farm Relief Services) meeting in Roscrea, Co Tipperary.

The meeting, which took place last Saturday, gave an opportunity to the workers to provide feedback on their time in Ireland. Peter Byrne, CEO of FRS, said that it was positive to hear good feedback and that attention was now turning to bringing more workers in from abroad.

Our first priority is to service our farmers

"We have laid solid foundations going forward and plan to bring in more workers from New Zealand, EU countries and hopefully from non-EU countries – now that work permits have been announced by the Government for countries outside of the EEA,” said Byrne.

With Teagasc reports stating an extra 6,000 dairy farm workers will be needed by 2025, FRS has been casting its net wider in search for these workers. In 2017 it set up the Dairy Operator Skills Programme to train people with non or limited farm/milking experience.

"Our first priority is to service our farmers well and we always try to source workers at home before going abroad. Demand remains higher than supply and therefore I am happy to report that we have made the required contacts outside of Ireland to build on this year and into the future,” added Byrne.

The workers were based across Munster as well as Cavan, and helped ease some of the extra labour demands during a tough spring, which saw a 20% increase in demand for the FRS.

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