70 farm jobs ‘at risk’ over pay costs

UP TO 70 jobs are at risk in north Co Dublin because of pay costs, the Irish Farmers Association claimed last night.

It warned the Government that competitiveness in export-led sectors, such as the food industry, is just as critical as dealing with the public finances in the current economic crisis.

Giving one example, IFA president Padraig Walshe said Tesco source most of their fresh vegetables and potatoes in the Dublin-Meath area, and while their prices to producers aren’t great, at least they are a market for their produce.

He said the vegetables are processed and packed by Dublin Meath Growers Ltd at Kilshane Cross, Co Dublin, where the minimum wage is €8.65 per hour. Tesco also source produce from Britain.

Mr Walshe said in Armagh, where some of their potatoes are packed, the minimum wage is £5.73 or €6.09 per hour. “That makes our labour costs 40% more expensive,” he said.

The IFA leader said Tesco last week notified one of its packers, Dublin Meath Growers, they were reviewing their business with them. “Up to 70 jobs in north Dublin are on the line. That’s what lack of competitiveness in the Irish economy means. Government failure to deal with this stark reality will cost jobs every day.

“My great fear is that Irish vegetable and potato growers will be next to lose their livelihoods as they are displaced by imports,” he said.

Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith, who addressed the IFA AGM last night, repeated that all payment claims for work completed to the department’s specification under the Farm Waste Management Scheme will be honoured.

The scheme helps farmers carry out work upgrading slurry storage in line with EU rules. Last year alone, despite the tightening in public finances, an exceptional supplementary estimate was approved for Mr Smith’s department allowing more than €114 million to be paid in grant-aid to thousands of farmers. Mr Smith said payments to date amount to about €527m in respect of 17,600 projects.

He said he was currently in discussion with the Minister for Finance in relation to the provision of funding.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Mr Smith were guests of the IFA at last night’s AGM in the Red Cow Hotel, Dublin.