Teagasc advisory staff could slump to 200
Professor Gerry Boyle has told the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Food that Teagasc currently depends on 271 permanent advisers working in local area offices, but has maintained the number of paid clients at about 44,000.
He revealed that while there is considerable pressure on the advisory service in all areas, the pattern of retirement is having a particular impact in some areas, including east Cork, west Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Waterford and Kilkenny, which are among the most commercial farming areas in the country.
He warned that pressure will be especially apparent in the spring, when commercial farmers have the greatest need for advisors’ services, and a number of scheme deadlines arise.
Teagasc may have to restrict student enrolment at a time of unprecedented demand for agricultural education.
Already, Teagasc has had to turn down 250 applicants for agricultural college places because the moratorium on public service recruitment has left it with insufficient teaching staff.
“To relieve some of these pressures, we hope advisers from less pressurised areas can be relocated temporarily to advisory units that are under particular pressure,” Professor Boyle told TDs and senators.
At the end of 2008, Teagasc employed 340 permanent advisers and 65 fully funded contract advisers, most of whom were REPS planners.
With no contract staff employed as REPS planners at present, the organisation has lost 69 permanent advisers and 65 contract advisers. The Director paid tribute to remaining staff members who have taken on a substantial increase in workload. But he warned, “The figures for the years to come are of most concern to us at the moment.”
Retirement at the normal age will reduce the number of advisers to 237 by the end of 2014. But a significant number may choose to retire early before 2012.
“In the short term, we are prioritising education and our service to commercial farmers,” said the Teagasc director.
He revealed that the public service recruitment moratorium recently prevented replacement of two agricultural college teachers who became seriously ill, and Teagasc had to juggle the advisory roles of eight advisers with teaching responsibilities to fill the vacancies. “That is not sustainable,” he warned.
In the longer term, Teagasc are considering approaches how the advisory service’s administrative staff could be used to ease the pressure on front line advisors.
The organisation may have to exit some activities, possibly off-loading some work on REPS, the single farm payment, and the nitrates derogation to the private consultancy sector.
