4 days ago
1,037 work permits issued to agri sector in first half of year
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (DETE) issued 1,037 work permits to the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector in the first half of 2025.
This is down from a total of 1,859 issued in the first six months of last year.
The figures show that in June this year, 59 were issued to the sector, while 117 were issued in May.
The highest number of permits so far this year were issued in February with 266, followed by 245 in March.
Across all sectors, a total of 15,043 permits have issued in 2025 so far.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon this week said that arising from ongoing engagement with sector stakeholders, his department is in regular contact with the DETE regarding the labour shortages that exist in certain sub-sectors of agri-food.
"Where there has been difficulty recruiting sufficient labour from within Ireland and the European Economic Area (EEA), my department continues to work closely with DETE to ensure that there are employment permits made available to recruit additional labour, while recognising that this should be the last resort for filling vacancies," Minister Heydon said.
"I am informed that 3,626 employment permits issued in 2024 to the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector, of which 1,912 were new permits and 1,714 were renewals.
"Agri-food was the sector in receipt of the second most general employment permits last year, followed by the healthcare sector."
The minister added that the Seasonal Employment Permit Pilot Scheme launched earlier this year.
This permit is a short-term employment permit for a non-EEA national to work for a maximum of seven months per calendar year in a seasonally recurrent employment.
It is designed to support targeted economic sectors, such as horticulture, in addressing labour shortages.
"I will continue to work closely with the sector and with the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment to help ensure that there is sufficient labour available to the agri-food sector," Minister Heydon said.
The DETE this year is to hold a public consultation as part of a formal review of the occupations eligible for employment permits.
A DETE spokesperson told Agriland: 'Ireland's employment permits system is managed through two occupations lists, the Critical Skills Occupations List and the Ineligible Occupations List.
'These occupations lists respectively determine employments that are either very highly skilled and in enduring shortage and those employments ineligible for an employment permit.
'Any role not on either of the occupations list can be considered for a general employment permit.
'The occupations lists are subject to periodic evidence-based reviews, which include a public consultation process that invites evidence-based submissions from all sectors."
