Ireland faces strong competition from New Zealand and Canada in the fight for skilled dairy workers.

Over the next three years, the country's dairy sector will need up to 500 additional employees just to cope with an additional 50,000 dairy cows, which are projected to replenish in the national livestock by 2022.

An employment consultant in Mayo County said it is becoming increasingly difficult to get the right people because of the incentives offered by employment agencies and farms in the Persian Gulf, Canada, and New Zealand.

Michael Hunter of Mivian International Ireland said earlier this year several dairy farmers turned to job centers as part of a pilot work permit scheme. He said that the first workers from northern India were stationed on Irish farms and work very well, but he has 15 more vacant posts.

According to Hunter, delays in the preparation of necessary documents, as well as increased competition for personnel from other world farming powers, complicate the search for workers. “They offer different types of incentives: free flights, faster work permits, free visas, etc. I recently lost three very good qualified guys who left for Canada because they were not ready to wait three to four months to get permits to work, ”explained Michael Hunter.

According to him, applying for a job currently takes about 16 weeks. In May 2018, a pilot quota scheme for obtaining work permits for assistants to dairy farms, gardeners and meat processing enterprises was launched in Ireland.

The scheme includes a new minimum payment threshold of € 22,000 and obligations to ensure the well-being of workers, accommodation and language training. Quotas are issued for each agricultural specialty and cannot be transferred to another specialty.