Family enterprise

A SHORTAGE of skilled workers in meat factories is now at ‘critical’ level, with factories looking to double the number of work permits in the sector to 3,000.

It comes as they deal with continued labour shortages following the beef protests during the summer.

A spokesperson for Meat Industry Ireland (MII) confirmed that it has made a submission seeking an increase in Meat Processor Operative permits.

“The labour shortage in the labour-intensive meat processing sector is now at critical levels. Significant numbers of staff were also lost during August/September when blockades forced a halt in processing operations with resulting temporary lay-offs taking place,” a spokesperson for MII said.

“State assistance, through the employment permit system, is essential.”

Currently, there are 1,500 work permits for meat processing operatives, all of which are used, and a business cases for an additional 1,500 employment permits has been put forward by the meat factories to the Department of Enterprise which is reviewing the application, in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture.

Quota

Earlier this year, the quota for deboners was re-opened by the Department of Enterprise, to provide 300 employment permits — following consideration of a detailed business case submitted by the sector, The quota had been closed since 2017.

Thomas and Tom Beausang, from Co Waterford at the New Twopothouse ploughing match at Ballybeg Middle, Co Cork.

As the Irish economy has moved to full employment, there has been increased difficulties in securing workers in meat factories.

Coupled with a shortage of skilled labour, there continues to be a backlog of cattle, with some farmers reporting weeks of delays to kill them. A backlog of 100,000 head had accumulated in September, when the beef protests ended after two months of disruptions.

Farmers are finding that for older cattle or out-of-spec cattle, there is a wait of three weeks in places.

Controlling the spread of TB in Wicklow is impossible unless a concerted effort is made to tackle deer numbers in the county, the ICMSA has claimed.

The effectiveness of increased TB testing of cattle herds has also been questioned as a viable control measure.

The latest regional breakdown of TB figures show that both West Wicklow and East Wicklow are the areas with the highest incidence of the disease, at 6.89 reactors for every 1,000 cattle tested and 5.02 respectively; the national average is 1.66.

“They can’t expect the problem to be cleared if they don’t tackle the source,” said Shane O’Loughlin, chairman of Wicklow ICMSA, who claimed there were in excess of 150,000 wild deer in the county.

“Continuing to do the same thing, and expecting a different result is the definition of madness. If the Department doesn’t do something about the source of the problem, the deer, they won’t get rid of TB.”