Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation (DBEI) Heather Humphreys has committed to treat the review of permit criteria for farm workers from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) as a matter of urgency.

Meeting with Minister Humpreys last week, IFA president Joe Healy stressed that the shortage of farm workers has now reached a crisis point on many farms.

In response to the farm labour shortage, a new initiative has been set up by a Tipperary company called People for Farming, which aims to bring farm workers from Europe.

Currently in a trial period, it hopes to be fully operational by April.

“We already have a number of workers placed on farms around the country,” a spokesperson said.

“We’re sticking to recruiting from EU countries at the moment, but if the visas were permitted by the Department of Business we would be interested in recruiting from non-EU countries as well.”

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Foreign worker permits on the table

Farm labour shortages now critical