Donal Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this important matter and I express appreciation to the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and Food, Deputy Smith, for coming into the House to address it.

The Government decided on a major decentralisation programme in the first week of December 2003. My concern is that since that time, little enough in practical terms has happened in various locations throughout the country, particularly in Macroom where I live and which I represent. However, we have had a number of reports in the meantime from the decentralisation implementation group. There was a report in March last year, a second one in July and a further report in September. In addition, the decentralisation implementation group published a report on 24 November 2004 and I have been informed that the group will report again. We were to receive this report in spring this year and I understand it will be published shortly. Macroom did not come to the fore in the previous reports and it was a matter of great disappointment to me and to the people of Macroom that it was way down the list as regards progress with decentralisation.

Macroom was not included in the first 15 projects to be relocated and it is of utmost importance that it be included in the next report. I thank the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Deputy Coughlan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Brendan Smith, for keeping me updated that the accommodation brief in respect of the new laboratories in Macroom is being finalised as a matter of urgency within the Department and that when finalised, the brief will be passed to the Office of Public Works. The Office of Public Works was given primary responsibility for delivering the property aspects of the decentralisation programme. Great urgency is attached to this matter because the site on which the laboratories stand on the Model Farm Road is earmarked for housing. For this reason, the laboratories earmarked for Macroom will have to be urgently relocated.

The relocation of the laboratories from the Model Farm Road provides the Department with an ideal opportunity to consolidate its laboratory operations in the southern region, encompassing three laboratories in Cork and two in Limerick. I am pleased Macroom will become the regional veterinary headquarters for the Munster region.

What progress has the Office of Public Works made in acquiring a suitable site or property? If a suitable site or property has been earmarked, when can we expect accommodation to be available for Department staff who have volunteered to decentralise? When will work commence on the programme to provide these facilities in Macroom?

The employment which will be created in Macroom as a result of decentralisation is urgently needed in the area. The closure in 2000 of GSI, a labour intensive components factory, turned Macroom into an employment blackspot and decentralisation is badly needed to boost the economy of the town.

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