Longford grower meets Enterprise Minister and says work permit scheme 'badly needed'
Enterprise Minister Peter Burke attended a meeting to hear about some of the issues which was also attended by Longford TD Micheál Carrigy and Senator Joe Flaherty and local councillors.
Longford and Leinster fruit growers along with IFA President Francie Gorman attended the McCormack farm on Monday with the goal of underlining the importance of supporting an agriculture industry ahead of Budget 2027.
Enterprise Minister Peter Burke attended a meeting to hear about some of the issues which was also attended by Longford TD Micheál Carrigy and Senator Joe Flaherty.
Local representatives Cllr Paul Ross, Cllr Martin Skelly and Cllr Mick Cahill were also on site.
The Government introduced an Employment Permits Act 2024 which brought in a new short-term Seasonal Employment Permit (SEP) pilot scheme for non-EEA nationals to work for a maximum of seven months annually that commenced in early 2025.
However, due to some difficulties such as operational delays, low uptake, and compliance breaches, the Government decided the scheme had not yet been adequately tested.
A second pilot phase is planned for the 2027 growing season and Minister Burke told Mr McCormack and soft fruit farmers that scheme is currently being worked on and developed.
Mr McCormack said, "We were thankful to the Minister for coming first of all and the seasonal work permit scheme is something that growers have been fighting for for the last eight or nine years. "Growers badly need it."
The family have been farming in Killenbore, Colehill for seven generations, spanning over 200 years.
Mr McCormack began growing strawberries in 1990, followed by turnips and leeks in 2010 and added raspberries and blueberries in 2015.
McCormack Fruit produces about 75 tonnes of strawberries and about three tonnes of raspberries annually and Mr McCormack explained how the permit situation has affected them.
"We got our crop picked and everything, but it's just getting harder and getting people with that aptitude is more difficult.
"The problem is in a lot of European countries people are not coming to Ireland anymore to work.
"Their economies have come up and their economies are doing well."
Mr McCormack said there needs to be more incentives to attract European workers or else target workers from outside Europe in countries such as Thailand, China and the Philippines.
"There is no seasonal work permit, there is a general work permit scheme but there is no actual scheme there for three to six months, which clearly a fruit grower or a veg grower needs, they need short term.
"If you go into a hotel in Dublin you can clearly see that the person is not from inside Europe and yet we can't get them, it's very unfair."
The horticulture industry, which is valued at €644 million, is the fourth largest sector of Ireland's agriculture business, but there are several challenges.
IFA President Mr Gorman said the cost of doing business was a major difficulty and he referred specifically to the €57 million left unspent and unallocated from the Government's fuel emergency funding which had been intended for the agricultural sector.
"[There is] none more so than to see that €57 million that was put out for fuel stays inside the agricultural sector, that is really important.
"We did take a decision the other day that there can still be another 20 cent given on fuel up to the end of the year and the rest of it should be used to co-fund the fertiliser strategy because it's really important that money stays in there."
After the meeting, Mr Gorman said they appreciated Mr Burke hearing first hand the problems and they hoped "that the points we made will lodge about the level of renumeration and the need to get the scheme up and running as soon as possible".
Longford IFA chair John Sheridan said Minister Burke had to work on getting the permits sorted out for soft fruit growers.
"We were here two years ago as well and they need to put a permanent solution in to get it right and that is the idea of having the Minister here today.
Mr Sheridan also said the cost of doing business for farmers is 'just crazy, between carbon tax and everything'.
"It costs the guts of €117 on a ten-metre load of concrete for carbon tax, it's just pure and utter madness," he added.