Farmers and staff oppose relocation of laboratories

A DECISION by the Department of Agriculture and Food to rationalise its laboratories in Munster and relocate to Macroom has led to opposition by farmers and staff.

Relocating from Limerick to Macroom are a dairy laboratory on Killeely Road and a veterinary research lab in Knockalisheen.

A dairy science lab, a veterinary research lab and a brucellosis lab are also being relocated to Macroom from the Model Farm Road in Cork city.

The department has agreed to give the 10 acres of land at Model Farm Road to the affordable housing initiative.

All the moves are part of the decentralisation programme and involve about 100 staff. They are scheduled for 2009.

However, a survey earlier this year showed 86% of staff in Cork were not happy to move to Macroom.

The staff put forward an alternative proposal to establish a Centre of Excellence at Model Farm Road.

It would provide a ‘one-stop-shop’ for farmers, including national brucellosis, regional veterinary and dairy science labs and a district veterinary office.

The centre would also accommodate the Agriculture and Environment and Structures (AES) office, the Cork Teagasc office, a conference centre and services for forestry, horticulture and plant health.

Fine Gael Senator Michael Finucane told the Seanad that some 50% of samples dealt with at the Knockalisheen veterinary centre in Limerick were delivered by hand.

He said a Teagasc survey indicated farmers generally will not travel beyond 60km to deliver samples, which means disease outbreaks may go undetected.

“This goes against the recommendations and policies on disease control and eradication,” he said, stressing the importance of retaining the regional veterinary centre at Knockalisheen.

Food Minister Brendan Smith said his department considered that building a state-of-the-art facility on a greenfield site would allow it to amalgamate the two labs in Limerick and the three in Cork into an efficient and modern complex.

He said the decision would also facilitate compliance with EU regulations and facilitate the implementation of a recommendation in an expenditure review that the department’s dairy science laboratories be reduced from three to two.

Mr Smith said the location of the Cork laboratories in a residential area like Model Farm Road was unsuitable. A greenfield site was more appropriate and would prove less obtrusive to neighbours.

Incoming Munster IFA vice-president Sean O’Leary said that whatever facilities are put in place must be accessible to farmers. There would not be much point in spending vast sums of money on developing such facilities if they were not going to be used, he said.