The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has requested tender on an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Engagement Software Tool to measure levels of inclusivity across its workforce.
€50,000 has been allocated by the department as finance for the measure at a time when farmers are reported to be struggling to absorb supply chain inflation with other concerns such as staff shortages and meeting climate targets mentioned as some of the factors Irish farmers are most concerned about.
According to data from Farm Relief Services Ireland (FSI) two thirds of farmers are struggling to find skilled labour to work on their farms and 60% said they have a poor work life balance.
The Irish Farmers’ Journal reported that some 80% of farmers say they are experiencing pressure due to the ‘green agenda’ and believe that it will affect the viability of their farms negatively.
6 out of ten surveyed said they would require more “external labour” to absorb the requirements of meeting climate targets with 55% saying they would require “knowledge supports” to do so.
In a document seen by Gript the DAFM – which oversees the Irish agri-food sector including primary agriculture, food and drink processing and manufacturing, fisheries, aquaculture and fish processing, forestry and forestry processing and the equine sector, – said it was seeking the software “for a minimum four weeks” for the use of its Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I) Advocacy Team.
The ED&I team is tasked with celebrating “diversity”, promoting “equality of opportunity and respect for diversity in all aspects of the Department’s business”, and to “promote, champion and foster” a work environment where staff feel “free to be their authentic selves”.
Farmers are not the only ones struggling to absorb increasing operational costs as some Irish fishermen have been forced to stay at port according to reports from last year.
Fianna Fail councillor Joe Carroll related how he’d spoken to a fisherman whose trip on the waters had cost €42,000 in fuel for a 14-day trip.
At the time Caroll said the crew onboard the trawler would be down €1,600 in wages as a result of the fuel price rises adding that efforts made by South & West Fishermen’s Association CEO Patrick Murphy to address the issues were ‘falling on deaf ears’.
DAFM, which describes itself as Ireland’s “oldest and largest indigenous industry”.says it wants to use the software in order to “maximum engagement with staff and generate information” including the creation of a report to “increase understanding ED&I profile of DAFM, grow our ED&I capacity and help promote a culture of inclusion across the organisation.”
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine says that at a primary level it accounts for 137,000 farms, over 770,000 hectares of forest, over 2,000 fishing vessels and some 180 aquaculture sites which it says produced an estimated €8.5 billion in output in 2020.
Ireland’s food and Agri- foods products were exported in 2020 to over 180 markets worldwide and valued at €14.2 billion.