Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

I make a special plea on behalf of the farming community of the south west following an approach made to me by a number of farming families there. As everybody knows, dairying is the centrepiece of farming activities in the south. County Cork has one third of our dairy production and in the wider context, two thirds of the entire dairy production for the country is in Munster.

The primary educational centre for the dairy industry is the college at Darrara, near Clonakilty, in west Cork. This college is in the heartland of the dairy industry with four major co-ops in my constituency nearby, with many others throughout the entire south west. My colleague, Deputy Michael Creed, recently described it as an engine of the commercial agriculture sector. The college has done a magnificent job over the years and there has been significant investment over that time, no doubt helped by the support of my former colleague, former Deputy Joe Walsh, who came from Clonakilty.

If we believe in the future of the agricultural industry, there must be great emphasis on practical agricultural education for young farmers. This brings me to the point of this motion on the Adjournment. The recent rationalisation changes have been announced by Teagasc, but the demand for places in Clonakilty Agricultural College is greater than ever and there is major concern among farming families that the college will not be able to accommodate that demand. The college took in 76 new applicants last year from a total application list of upwards of 100. Already this year there are approximately 130 applications with an expectation that this will rise to 200 before the college term begins. 9 o'clock

The rub is that on current indications there will be fewer teaching staff next year than this year. There will be a principal, five teaching staff plus two technicians and one job-sharing technician to cover the college's entire student population. The issue is whether the extra demand can be accommodated which is why I am making this special plea to the Minister of State. I am not interested in the business of status but rather the practical nuts and bolts on behalf of the farm families and the parents of young applicants who are already fretting about the problem and concerned that their family members, the young farmers of the future, will not be able to go there.

This issue was recently addressed in the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and when the chairman of Teagasc, Professor Gerry Boyle, gave evidence it was clear that his heart was in the right place. In seeking to assure Deputy Creed, who raised the issue, he stated that no student would be turned away because of the rationalisation exercise. He described Clonakilty as the regional educational centre for the south west and spoke about the progress that would be made there. He made it clear that what is being done in Clonakilty would enhance the stature of the college. It is not the stature that I am concerned about. I am concerned for the farm families and what will happen to the young farmers of the future.

The bigger demand is probably attributable to the lack of apprenticeships and jobs from builders etc. There is more of an emphasis on farming for the future. In a way we are back to the future. I firmly believe that farming will be one of the engines from the point of view of exports and otherwise that will help to lift us out of the current recession. It would be totally shortsighted to ignore the pool of young farmers in the country - of course I am mainly concerned about the south west and the dairy industry - and not give them the practical agricultural education they need. We are talking about an investment in the future. I make this special plea to the Minister of State not to turn them away.

The current teacher complement will not be able to cope with the demand. Action is needed now so that the college can make the necessary plans to accommodate the demand, if not in full, as far as possible. While the Minister of State's heart will probably be in the right place, I want a commitment that will allow the college to plan the next academic year to accommodate the great demand now pressing in on top of it.

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