Keelings finds only 78 eligible workers in Ireland to help with harvest after controversy

Keelings found only 78 properly eligible workers out of the near 500 who responded to their call for local employees.

The Dublin fruit company advertised job vacancies following controversy surrounding the use of workers from Bulgaria.

They said they employ about 900 temporary workers to harvest over the season which goes from April to October.

Keelings has received more than 480 applications locally, but 192 did not respond when contacted.

Also, 215 failed the initial screening for reasons including lack of transport or access to Keelings' bus service.

The company are hopeful many of the remaining 78 will be working for them in the near future.

On Monday, April 13, 189 seasonal workers flew on a charter flight from Sofia to Dublin to work with Keelings.

The company had said at the time: "All had been health screened before they travelled to Sofia airport where they were temperature checked by officials before entry.

"Following their arrival at Dublin Airport they were taken straight to their housing on private buses, where in accordance with the HSE guidelines at that time, they commenced 14 days of Restricted Movement.

"During this time, they had groceries and essentials delivered to them and they were paid for this period. They were subject to further medical screening immediately before commencing work on the 29th of April."

The company had preciously explained that over the last 20 years there has been less interest from Irish people in this work.

They said: "Most of our seasonal work has been done by experienced horticultural workers from other EU countries, often from Poland, Latvia, and now from Bulgaria.

"This year we recruited in the usual manner over the winter and commenced our job offers at the end of October 2019 to ensure our Irish harvest."

"In late March, to ascertain whether we could save the harvest with locally-recruited employees, we advertised in Ireland.

Up to 16th of April last, we had attracted 27 domestic applications, which fell significantly short of our labour needs.

"Given the level of publicity over the last number of weeks we have had additional applications and other offers of help. We do not plan to recruit further horticultural workers from outside Ireland in the coming months."

The Government had last month said seasonal workers are critical to the agricultural sector in terms of harvesting, planting and tending functions, especially in the current season and anyone arriving from outside Ireland must comply with the Department of Health guidelines with regard to Covid-19 requirements and restrict movements for 14 days.

They then launched national recruitment campaign aiming to recruit a large number of temporary workers for the horticulture sector from the live register within Ireland.

They said: "This campaign will be timed for the fruit harvest peaking in mid-May to mid-June and the vegetable harvest from mid-June."