Seal sanctuary faces closure in budget crisis

Ireland’s Seal Sanctuary looks like floundering as a result of the latest budget statement from Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy.

Mr McCreevy’s budget failed to come up with an anticipated allocation of money for capital funding for the sanctuary, and today officials there confirmed they were faced with closure.

The sanctuary’s Brendan Price claimed they had received pre-budget indications from the government that a one-off funding grant of £1.8m would be coming their way to develop a seven-acre site north of Dublin.

Government sources agreed there had been talks with the Irish Seal Sanctuary but insisted that no commitment had been made.

They stressed, though, that the issue was ‘‘still under consideration’’.

Mr Price said they had had no official word since Wednesday’s budget, and renewed a plea to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to make a last minute intervention.

Mr Price who founded the operation with his wife Mary 16 years ago, said a community and social service would be lost to Ireland if the sanctuary closed down.

‘‘We have managed to keep it going for the last 12 months in expectation of this money being made available but when we talked on Budget night we had no choice but to close and cease our operations,’’ he said.

‘‘There is going to be a huge vacuum in our wake’’.

The Irish Seal Sanctuary is run by four full-time volunteers, who were called on to help 58 distressed common or grey seals during 2000 and have come to the rescue of a further 36 animals so far this year.

The site they had hoped to develop would have provided pools for up to 50 seals, accommodation for volunteers, training in seal rescue and oil-spill response and education for the public.

‘‘The volunteers have world-recognised skills, the network is in place and all we needed was the capital funding. But in the budget we did got not as much as a mention not an acknowledgment and not a penny,’’ Mr Price said.

One of the operation’s most notable successes was recorded just last month, when Flubber, a rare hooded seal found in a distressed condition off the coast near Co Wexford in September, was freed in the Atlantic Ocean after being nursed back to health.

The seal was cared for at the sanctuary and then taken from Galway in a special tank by the navy ship the Niamh and released five hours later in more than 500 feet of water nearly 150 miles from the coastline.