July 29th 2014

ICSA suckler chairman Dermot Kelleher has called on the government to ensure that Teagasc has adequate resources to help farmers with GLAS applications.

“Earlier this year, Teagasc announced a €10m investment in its research facility at Moorepark, yet it was recently reported that it does not expect to be in a position to provide an advisory service to individual farmers in the way in which it was done in the past,” said Mr. Kelleher. “While investment in research is positive, and we would like to see more of it, particularly in the beef sector, it should not be at the expense of planner services to farmers.”

“We understand that resources available to Teagasc have been limited by Government policy, which has prevented recruitment and seen good advisors fall by the wayside through failure to renew contracts,” continued Mr. Kelleher. “Early retirement schemes have also resulted in a drop in staff numbers without bringing in major savings. Private providers are already struggling to cope with demand for their services, and if the Government is serious about a target of 30,000 GLAS plans, extra resources must be made available to Teagasc.”