On Monday, 189 seasonal workers flew on a charter flight from Sofia to Dublin to work at Keelings farm in north county Dublin for the six-month fruit-picking season.
"We have advertised locally over two weeks ago and up until last evening we had 27 applications which falls significantly short of our labour needs. Today we have received a further 13 applications so far. We hope to employ as many of these people as possible." He said communities coming together to save the crop is not new, and with sacrifices being made here of not travelling more than two kilometres, it makes no sense bringing people in "from the other side of the continent".
"The Government urgently need to clarify what is and isn't allowed in terms of the movement of people through our airports," he said. "It is not that they are only prepared to do it. It is that they have been coming here every year and developed skills to work fast and to the specifications."
Pay a decent wage ,and good terms and conditions, irish people got enough know how to avoid bad employers .
I don’t get the nasty comments on SM about the Strawberry pickers as I understand it the jobs were advertised locally and only circa 40 people applied (over 100 needed) so what choice did the company have if they weren’t to lose their crop? Quarantine for 14 days, no problem
Where do I apply ?
On their Twitter and Facebook page no jobs advertised?
Backtracking now of course couldn't believe anything they say.
I’m not surprised at this at all.
Could you live on €7/hr and live in Ireland? Didn't think so..... boycottkeelings
Wanna an article lead...? Check out where these guys sleep...Keelings provides 'quality' accommodation...and charges for it from payslips 😂
Well if they paid they might get more. They are a disgrace to Ireland.
Keelings pay a pittance to their workers . It would be impossible to live on in Ireland that’s why they have to bring cheap labour in from abroad .
It’s not on.... We can’t go to our jobs. Can’t drive to our country side. We have thousands out of work , should have got the chance. Call a spade a spade it’s cheep labour.
I do not believe them.
Many asylum seekers are kept IDEL in direct provisions, Make use of them & recover the cost.
Where did they advertise?
Pay a decent wage you would get them.Not a valid reason!
Absolutely rubbish business people always blame locals for not wanting to work total CRAP
Untrue. I know someone that applied and was rejected.
lies they dont want irish workers as they know their rights, even migrants have said this its an irish company with foreign management, and they dont want irish,
BoycottKeelings boycottRTE
Irish people are crying bastards. Its unbelievable how one generation can make you soft
They'll receive that amount of sales for the year too
It’s gas that the country is up in arms about 1 flight from Bulgaria. Where’s the outage for the 10 daily flights arriving into Dublin from the U.K.? A country with an infection rate 10 times higher than Bulgaria? Faux outrage if ever I saw it.
Utter nonsense BoycottKeelings
If it were 200 healthcare workers being flown in to support our country, would there be as much outcry? Or if we could not get people to work in supermarkets? Or cleaners? Food production is essential and if they follow the health protocols those workers need to be here.
Where do that number of people go to self isolate and where do they live while in Ireland Is Keelings providing accommodation too?
With the Irish government paying everyone €350 to stay at home no wonder Keelings can’t get workers. When will this reckless government cop on to themselves. They will destroy us,
So did they hire the forty local workers? The only people who should be paying for a TV license should be foreigners and businessmen. You don't represent the Irish.
If Keelings want cheap foreign labor, then they can sell their good cheaply to foreigners. The Irish are being played as mugs at every turn!
The Irish can't accept third world pay. We have Varadkers PR expenses to pay for.
Bullshit.Utter Skutter.I have worked in fruit/veg/tomato farms since I was 9 years old.Around North County Dublin.They are who they are 200 euro a month for a bulgarian.Check their prsi number.
An absolute disgrace putting more peoples lives at risk over strawberries! (money profit greed)!
Taoiseach would be a damn site more uncomfortable with food shortages or price hikes in the shops. AgCredible feedingthefrontline
Ok, saw a post saying the wages were €40/day plus food plus board. Anyone got a rough idea how much that's worth hrly? Why have no Irish applied? What's the current minimum wage now? If Irish ppl won't do it, the company has no choice but to look elsewhere.
Uncomfortable? Putting people at risk like that should get whoever made and condoned these decisions locked up. Load of sh*te they don't give a f*ck
I'm amazed they actually got 40 Irish Applications, such is the cheap labour and conditions. In fact RTE, are you sure you are correct with the figures? What about all the non-native foreign national Irish passport holders that applied for jobs? Are they not IRISH as well?
So keelingsfruits need 900 pickers and so far have 189 flown in ..... start sending in your job applications ladies & gentlemen as there is lots of picking to be done!
What are the pay and conditions for workers? If its such a specialised and labour intensive job then surely they are being paid accordingly? People trying to make this into a racist thing are merely trying to deflect from the real issues. Leo and the boys are doing a great job
Uncomfortable? Why aren't they being sent home on the same plane
Well pay properly then.
🤢RTE you are propaganda machine for the big shots. Correct me if I'm wrong but did they advertise only last month?
If they paid proper wages people would apply. 🤔
Paying 350 a week to people who weren’t on that wage in their jobs doesn’t help. But my son applied couple weeks ago and they only rang today for initial screening...he has got another job now
johnreade1 there you go bud
Keelings love to grow (Coronavirus)😁
How about we all live without berrys end if story🙄🇮🇪🌈
MagdaDavitt77 Low paid back breaking summer jobs are what younglads are for. Anyone who genuinely doesn't want the Bulgarian horde coming over - tell your sons/nephews to apply. Problem solved. You'll be shocked to find that they'll cry at the sight of a bit of muck nowadays though, so...
About time companies in this country are paying a realistic wage to draw in workers from their own country so they don't have to go to these lengths! Why allow companies to exploit other nations?!
Hundreds of thousands of people out of work and gone onto welfare_ie but it’s impossible to get workers for essential food production including fishing.
bullshit
Ironically we are told 2km limit, horseshit
That's cause you cant pick strawberries from home! Try harder keelingsfruits LockdownIreland 2kmfromhome Covid_19ireland
Why not make it mandatory that our own lazy bastards that refuse to work do it instead of bringing in people from other countries - pandemic or not 🤔
Shame on Keelings 🍓 😠
could they kindly let us know where they advertised there are a lot of students who would love the opportunity of some summer work
That's because the positions were only advertised in Bulgarian.
Not a good enough excuse for cheap labour. When so many Irish businesses in trouble but still staying closed because it's the right thing to do. I was so proud of our government on their fantastic work until today 😥😥😥
ingridmileyRTE
People are happy to be up in arms & pull the racist card until they suddenly realise Irish people wouldn’t do the back breaking manual labour at minimum wage & they’d then have to pay twice as much for their strawberries.
Pure business greed , would rather import fruit from Europe than workers with a chance of infection
I think it’s the way they just browsed through the airport and fuck off to Louth and not a fucks given . Unbelievable .
The amount of money Keelings payed for chartered flights, medical checks, accommodation etc, they must be paying those workers literally peanuts
Why don't they run an ad on Rte radio/tv and or ads on Facebook/instagram/twitter.
I see all the MSM are rowing in behind the fruit company. Makes you wonder? Look, the point here is that 189 ppl on a full flight came to Ireland so social distancing NON EXISTENT. I couldn't attend my auntie's funeral and I've lived in Ireland my whole life. WTF is that about?
Perhaps those receiving taxpayer COVID19 payments are 'asked' to put on the GreenJersey and do their bit...
40 applications because they are paying subsistence wages. If they cant afford to pay IRISH WORKERS then they should not operate in IRELAND. BoycottKeelings
No real issue here!
Going 2 reserve judgement hr. Its a hard job & I'd assume if they got 900 local applications they'd go with it. We hav minimum wage which is probably alot for those Bulgarian workers. We all love our fruit & don't think about how its picked. The vol of people on 1 plane....no.
Guys really be honest with yourselves 40 Irish people applied what did you think they should do.
People entering the country should be quarantined for the incubation period and tested before they leave quarantine. That way you won't have people with the virus picking strawberries. How long does the virus live on strawberries by the way ?
Of the 40 applications, how many got the jobs? And where are the migrants housed and who pays their rentrteinvestigates
Mad_Green_Dog Yeah and you turned down Irish workers
I think the issue here is how these people were transported into the country with regards to Pandemic and Social distancing and corporate responsibility. People turning it into a race thing either way to me are missing the point.
Somebody had to give the go ahead for fruit picking visas to the Bulgarians who arrived but also what about the Turkish workers who arrived ten days ago working at a distribution centre there not pickers and had no screening or isolation
then why the hell did Harris not do anything about it, seriously Harris grow a spine
Some people r getting more with 350 a wk than wat they would get on a normal working eg 3 day a wk so why would u want to give that up
What i love is everybody taking the morale high ground now about these workers and working conditions /pay they have.where was this thought process last year ,or the year before that or even going back over 10 yrs ago .NO WHERE .No one complained about who picked the fruit before
Sounds like someone needs more mass immigration
People commenting that ‘proud Irish wouldn’t do the job’ is ridiculous & NOT the point! If there was no one in this country willing then so be it. Do without your bloody strawberries! Don’t un-do all the hard work we have done so far by flying the guts of 200potential cases over!
The technical term is jammy dodgers
Buy a farm in Bulgaria in that case
Get Alex Jones on the case he'll get to the bottom of this.
Tap into the Mexican workers, Canada hires 60,000 a year. They are the best and Canada / US farm produce would collapse without them.
MagdaDavitt77 Be very interested to know why? But then we all know ! Ask the rate of pay?
EVERY time our gov are questioned about border control they are as vague as fuck. 'Oh we'll have to look into that' the EU control our borders anyway [Source: Brexit]
Keelings aren't the problem. they shouldn't have been able to do it, the fact that they could is the problem
Fantastic reviews from some of their ex employees !!! Not !
Keelings are a non essential company they should have closed.
My god the amount of bots pathetically trying to defend this is ludicrous 😡😡😡 Will Keelings be paying the minimum wage for the labour required?
Im sure some secondary school students who are scratching their bollox at the moment could have been enticed to go pick strawberries.
If they need staff, then they need staff!!!!
Looks like jacks roll wasn’t really the challenge. If we ran low on food in 6 months time, that would be a real challenge to overcome on top of the rest. An Island needs to ensure food supply, short, medium and long term.
Will never buy a Keeling product again ever
7.50 per hour wonder why 8hr day 60 a Day 5days =300 per week get 203 on dole Hello 👋 wake up Ireland 🇮🇪
If they paid a living wage for a hard day's work they might recruit worker's locally...they pay an absolute pittance only the desperate and easily exploited would accept what they offer for the working hour's and intensive labour they expect.
Sorry this is just rubbish by keelingsfruits you need 900 workers you don’t start advertising for 900 jobs “just over 2 weeks ago” as they said in their statement. They knew they were going to use this agency company - ultimately reducing employers PRSI etc
I have heard it said to me “why not tell your voters to get off their fat lazy holes and pick some berries and work for a living for a change”. No. Our voters are part of the glorious revolution that we will instigate and do not have time for manual labour.
There's 000s of students off at the minute who would do this but keeling's pay flights and accommodation for cheap labour rather than pay Irish people a decent rate
Is there a lockdown or not? Garda checkpoints out of Dublin last weekend. 189 foreign workers flying in this weekend. 1,300 more to fly in. Looks like all bets are off on this lockdown business now.
what about all our European citizens that already live here and are out of work?
They are notoriously one of the worst employers in Ireland. Do some research on them.
Go Keelings
Funny enough though, Irish people will fuck off to Holland to pick tulips though. Maybe because they don't want their neighbors to see them doing manual labour....
The company needed workers , Irish folk wont do the work. The new workers are going thru quarantine . I’ve no hard feeling towards keelings . Economy needs to kept going & as does life
Most applicants were Keeling over when they heard the wages!
Scum
Strawberries are essential..
If they house people why do they 'advertised locally'?
Nobody had a issue when we shipped doctors and nurses from every corner of the planet back to Ireland!!
Maybe offer a decent wage. How much did it cost to charter the plane, how much does their imported workers cost to accommodate, how much will the bad press cost Keeling’s?
They had to get people who were qualified horticulturists,who could help them,their is a lot of other businesses who have to do the same,like mushrooms farms, egg farms , Wexford Potatoes & Strawberries & herb farms, I understand people are upset but we need to support them too
At this point Keelings would tell us Mass and so would RTE!
Keelings say it would take months to train up staff here and there's eastern Europeans ready to do the work......sounds like they want experienced people and don't want to be paying out to train up Irish people. Did they advertise these jobs nationally
Hows this ecconomical for any bis, Fly them in and house them, pay them minimum wage then deduct cost of flights and accommodation directly, lots doing this, the actual cost per employee is less than half the cost of locals, BS on irish application.
Can we see the evidence please?
Unfortunately a lot Irish people will think they are above such a job . They needed 900 so went and got them . They got them on a flight because it was essential to do so . Fair play
Just more evidence that our current government is still blinded by greed in a pandemic
And darragh mccullaghs daffodils are as well? I ve never actually eaten daffodils.
No self respecting irish person would work for the wages they are prob offering. Considering the bulgarians get accomodation and food all included when an ordinary irish citizen must pay rent, travel and their own food. $350 for doing noting or €350 for putting yourself at risk
The pandemic is giving a little bit of cover for racist nutjobs to come out from under their rocks for a while.
I remember working on a Strawberry Farm about 50 years ago when I was a schoolboy. I would have though that in the interim time that there would now be an automated piece of machinery to remove the strawberries from the bushes.
keelingsfruits trying to do the Irish won't work spin. people were not outraged about your workers they were outraged you took no precautions on bringing them into the Country, no PPE, no social distancing and no isolation for 14 days. This is the issue.
Are they self isolating
Just want cheap Labour..That's why only 40 applications.. Will be living in accommodations like Sardines.. Boycott The Money Grabbers.
Fair play to the Bulgarians putting themselves at risk coming over here knowing its safer at home...
Tough, just will have to manage like all the business in Ireland got told by the government, but then they don’t have a government official as a friend
Where did they advertise? Most certainly didn't see any applications in the normal labour market. So that is rubbish
How much where keelings offering per hour? Would people be better off receiving the 350 a week or picking fruit? I'm sure if it worked out more to pick fruit more Irish would have applied but obviously they are paying below minimum wage. And where are these people staying?
I say let them work because the Irish are to lazy to work and more interested in claiming the dole and sitting on there lazy fat arses
Where were they advertised rte .... keelings
The solution to low uptake is better pay, not imported cheap labour.
Seems too many Irish people are work-shy and too well looked-after with social welfare.
Very clearly, keelingsfruits they are choosing profit over people.They hire these every year & house them in student accommodation, run a private bus service to and from the accommodation to the plant... I wonder what social distancing signs are on the bus & in what language's?
Never saw ads looking for fruit pickers ? Plenty free and willing to pick fruit for 10 euro p.h . Careers putting their lives at risk for 12 euro p.h.
So keeling's are going to be flying another few hundred ppl into the country going by that headline, every other company in the country had to close down and they are losing income, may not open again, what's so special about keeling's,they wealthy unelected govt influencers.
How much are they paying them?
It makes me laugh The health system in Ireland won’t be able to function without Filipino nurses.
Disgraceful behaviour when the whole country struggles 😡
Well looks like all our efforts we have made in the last 5 weeks are gone down the drain if they are still allowing people to fly in to Ireland ....
Missing the point.. keelings twisting their story now!! How are they social distancing where are they all staying, what conditions are they put up in.. how safe are they? Keelings need to answer those questions.
What a vegans going to eat if their are no pickers.
Why weren't they all quarantined and who gave permission for this flightsimoncoveney answer this simple question.
Have them prove it BoycottKeelings
👍 Keelings,u do what ye need to do to keep the fresh fruit flowing!!!!
Cheap foreign labour here we come.
Should be fined €1000 euro for every worker flown in On a chartered flight that did not have the correct safety for the health of humanity, the money should then be used to help frontline staff in our hospitals. keelings Ireland coronavirus
If they paid a proper wage they'd get more applications.
They still put our country at more risk . They should have let the bloody strawberries die instead of people .
It's our demands for cheap produce that's why keeling source cheap labour.
It’s not like the alt right here work anyway
Regime shilling for their favourite feminist multi millionaire, Caroline Keeling. I'm just gonna leave this right here...
Lest call a spade a spade, for the most part those who were out of work before those crisis hit would definitely not work on a farm picking fruit. All those recently unemployed are getting 350 a week now, add in transport and lunch in this job and they'd prob be out of pocket.
the best little country in the world to be a waster in 🇮🇪
Ah yes, RTÉ running the established Fine Gael PR line. Like an obedient spaniel, the bruhs in Montrose at the beck and call of Fine Gael and their cronies
I wonder how they got the go-ahead to bring in foreign nationals while everywhere is locked down
Says it all
I support Keelings on this. You cant employ locals of they dont apply. Having done fruit picking, I can tell you, its poxy work for shite pay. This is just another opportunity for the PC brigade and the racists to jump onboard. If youre that outraged, fill out an application
tis bad when joe duffy didnt bring this up today
So , that's another 700 coming in on flights is it..
Show the actual proof that this is the case anecdotally hearing many people applied? RTÉ stop acting like a propaganda agency
Every fucking school in the country is closed, I'm sure there's 900 kids out there that can pick fucking strawberries....
It would be good to know more about the terms of employment with regards the seasonal workers they need..
Should have asked Brian Kavanagh to get down on his knees. He owes you lot.
Picking strawberries is beneath the Irish. We've come a long way!
they are isolating for 2 weeks before they start work. No irish people applied and prob wouldn't do the job in anyway. People were happy for irish doctors to fly home and isolate for 2 weeks before they start working. What's the difference bulgaria has way less cases then ire.
That's bull. Hundreds of Irish applied for the jobs at Keeling's and received rejection emails.
If they can't get Irish workers and really need to import workers then they have to do a proper quarantine, 2 weeks, locked up with no external contact apart from safe food drop off etc keelingsfruits 😷
Let them do the work, Irish people go to Australia and fruit pick for months to gain a visa.
How do you apply keelingsfruits?
The rest of us are not allowed travel over 2km but they are flown in from thousands of miles away
Scratcher shouldn’t be allowed if there are jobs available
You’re a biased shower of shites in RTÉ, the GE2020 really showed you lot for who you are, and who you represent. Why don’t you send one of your “journalists” out to keelingsfruits and report on the conditions these people work under.
That's not the problem, fair play to the people that took the job, It's the travel during a time in lockdown
I’m going to buy extra Keelings produce now just to spite the gobshitty masses.
I taught the government were doing a good job up to now.cant believe this is happening.why are we bothering at all on a lock down when they can fly people in to pick strawberrys
Are we on lockdown or Not? Mixed messages. You'll confuse out newest 'ethnic minority' . Just sayin'
It's naive to think Keelings are the only company doing this, so unless growing their own, is every1 going to boycott all fruit & veg producers? Ridiculous
RTE attempt to plaster over the cracks.
Where did they advertise these jobs? Companies usually advertise all over their social media platforms but there's nothing on their twitter page about jobs
What are the pay and conditions for this temporary contract?
Yea we believe u. Like u issued statement AFTER Ryanair employee blew whistle. U wouldnt pay Irish properly
Go Shit!!
Avoid avoid avoid keelingsfruits
But did they promote applications? Nope they didn’t!
Bull shit.
They aren't gonna need any soon as I suspect there will be zero demand for anything with their label on it !
Majority of irish businesses are struggling, I'm pretty sure a strawberry companies concerns are quite far down the list of reasons why we should be importing potential covid carriers
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