Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 December 2025
754. Deputy Martin Kenny asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his attention has been drawn to a shortage of Department vets in meat factories; the location of these shortages; the reason for these shortages; and the way in which he intends to resolve this issue. [70338/25]
View answerMy Department is committed to ensuring that a skilled and motivated workforce is in place to meet its priority business needs. Workforce planning processes are utilised to identify our requirements across all our grade streams and locations, aiming to ensure a long-term, proactive and strategic plan by which current and future staffing needs are addressed.
As business needs arise, staff are allocated to support organisational priorities within my Department. Overall staffing levels and required skills are monitored to ensure business needs are met. Particular focus is applied to the staffing of meat plants, forecasting requirements to minimise the occurrence of vacant positions arising.
There are currently two Veterinary Inspector vacancies in meat factories across my Department and work is ongoing to minimise any delay in the allocation of officers to these vacancies. Details of these vacancies are provided in the table below:
|
Grade |
Location |
|
Veterinary Inspector |
Kildare Chilling ABP Bandon
|
