The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is in regular contact with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment on these issues, including highlighting the shortages that exist in certain sub-sectors of agri-food. That Department has lead responsibility for employment permit policy and the most recent review of the lists for employment permits is expected to conclude shortly. This is one method for helping to fill labour shortages, although it is considered to be a last resort. In advance of this, the Department of Social Protection are involved in helping employers recruit from the domestic and European labour pools, supplemented through initiatives such as ‘Help2Harvest’. These sectors also need to have appropriate labour attraction and retention policies in place.
The new Food Vision 2030 strategy includes a goal to “Attract and Nurture Diverse and Inclusive Talent” and this recommends five actions for the sector: employers in the agri-food industry will develop an education, skills and talent attraction and retention strategy; they will ensure decent work and address labour shortages; education and training programmes, including new apprenticeships, will be kept under review to ensure they respond to needs such as in the areas of environmental sustainability; they will promote and improve gender balance at all levels, but particularly at senior management and board level; and they will promote and develop initiatives to improve diversity and inclusion.