A DUP Mournes councillor has blamed Brexit for causing a Northern Ireland workforce shortage.
Newry, Mourne and Down District Council agreed a motion this week to seek extended UK working visas for EU citizens from six months to two years.
The focus on seasonal and fishing industry also heard claims of foreign workers "jumping across the border" to the Republic of Ireland once UK visas ran out, causing a further drain on resources in the north.
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Bringing the motion forward, Slieve Gullion S DLP councillor Pete Byrne said: “This council recognises the acute pressures that apple and mushroom producers are currently under as a consequence of the severe shortage of seasonal workers.
"This council calls on the UK government to relax immigration rules to allow for visas for seasonal agriculture workers to ensure that food can be fully harvested and to prevent the collapse of the horticulture industry as a consequence of the inability to acquire necessary workers.”
He added: "Fruit and veg industry is predominately around the border and due to labour shortages it is now at risk.
"Seasonal workers are predominately EU workers and that makes up 95% of the industry.
"One of the reasons being that farmers simply can't get the people from here to do the work.
"We now have a real difference between both sides of the border.
"In the North, the system allows to take in (foreign) seasonal workers for six months only, 16 weeks of which are mandatory training and in the Republic of Ireland side (non-EU) workers can stay for up to five years.
"So what we are technically allowing is a system whereby workers in NI are effectively trained up and jumping across the border and that is simply not sustainable.
"I don't blame the workers for doing that, they need certainty.
"They don't have the same problem in GB as they don't share a border with an EU state."
The south Armagh rep told the chamber that employers across the council district were missing out on a unique spike in agricultural demand.
Cllr Byrne said: "I went down to a mushroom farm in Mayobridge and it is very frustrating to see and hear of the huge potential for growth.
"Since, Brexit, since the war in Ukraine there is more need for home-grown produce. But the farmers are unable to invest more because of the very stringent restrictions on seasonal workers.
"So I am asking the council to support the farmers request to write to the UK government to add the seasonal workers to the shortage occupation list (SOL) similar to the 'Tier 2' visa of up to two years, which allows visa restrictions to be relaxed in order to recruit overseas labour."
The full council meeting heard from south Down reps on the effects of the visa system that has witnessed a shift from Eastern European workers since the UK break away from the EU.
Mournes DUP rep Glyn Hanna said: "It's an excellent motion to be quite honest, for all the horticultural industry, it is Brexit that has caused this problem.
"I would ask the motion is slightly amended, I would ask that the fishing industry be added to it.
"The fishing industry at this moment in time in Kilkeel and Ardglass is suffering severely because you cannot get man power on to the boats and to do the necessary work.
"For some time there were many Polish and Lithuanian, that were relied upon very heavily.
"I now know they are relying on crews from the Philippines and all parts of Africa and all, but the problem is still there.
"Fishing is a massive economic driver in south Down, and I would ask that amendment be made."
The amended motion was agreed in the chamber.
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