Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

The Government must urgently review the proposed closure of the Kinsealy research centre and its relocation to a much smaller facility at Ashtown, County Dublin. The important Teagasc facility at Kinsealy plays a critical role, as the Minister of State knows, in the horticulture and agrifood sector in Fingal and the north county. Serious issues have been raised about the high cost of closing the facility. Many constituents and Teagasc workers have argued that the proposal to close the centre will incur a significant net cost to the State at a time when we can least afford the burden of any extra or unnecessary costs.

It has also been alleged that extraordinary costly mistakes have been made by Teagasc during this episode. For example, it is alleged that property consultants missed the key submission date to the Fingal county development plan in what was an extraordinary lapse. For these reasons I have contacted the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. John Buckley, to ask him to request that the Teagasc internal auditors submit an immediate report responding to these allegations. I also asked him to carry out a full cost-benefit analysis on the closure and relocation of the centre to Ashtown. On 12 April I received a letter from the Comptroller and Auditor General stating that he "has asked the audit group completing the financial audit of Teagasc to make preliminary inquiries" and that he will "review the outcome as soon as they have been made". It would be extraordinarily premature for Teagasc to move ahead with the closure of Kinsealy given the involvement of the Comptroller and Auditor General and the prospect of a report being published on serious auditing of financial matters surrounding the proposed closure.

As the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Reilly, knows, the Kinsealy Teagasc centre is a vital agricultural and horticultural research station for north County Dublin and its wider environs. Fingal has a strong farming tradition and the horticultural sector here is critical to local, mid-Leinster and national economies. For example, I understand very important research was developed at the centre relating to the valuable mushroom production sector in some of the northern counties.

Some 85 people are now employed at the Kinsealy centre, and it has an important mandate for ensuring that the long-term competitiveness and dynamism of Irish horticulture continues. I understand the Kinsealy centre also has close research links with scientific staff at the world-class Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin.

In late 2009, just before Christmas, staff at the Kinsealy centre were shocked to discover that there were plans afoot to shut their research station down and relocate staff to Ashtown and other Teagasc facilities across the country. As the Minister of State knows, it is a big site of 100 acres plus. It was then that constituents who are also Teagasc staff first came to meet me to express concerns about the closure. Several were rightly fearful that they would be forced to move across the county or the country even though they and their families had deep roots in Fingal, in the Minister's constituency and mine, and throughout the north county. I continually pursued the former Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Brendan Smith, on this matter, and was disappointed with the performance of the outgoing Minister of State with responsibility for horticulture, Trevor Sargent of the Green Party who, despite representing the area, seemed to do little or nothing for the welfare of these workers and the important work they do for our country.

During the 30th Dáil, as the Acting Chairman knows, I was a member of the Committee of Public Accounts, and I asked the committee to examine the value for money to the State of the potential closure of the Kinsealy centre. I understand the clerk of the committee contacted Professor Gerry Boyle, the director of Teagasc, at the Carlow headquarters and asked him to provide details of any cost-benefit analysis undertaken before the closure plans were developed. As far as I understand, Professor Boyle and the Teagasc senior management team have never provided this information to the committee or to the Comptroller and Auditor General. Can the Minister indicate whether he has seen the details of any cost-benefit analysis? What are the costs and benefits of relocating from Kinsealy to Ashtown? What is the economic justification for closing down such a vital and historic facility in modern Irish agriculture?

For all these reasons, the Minister should insist on an immediate moratorium on all plans by Teagasc to shut down the Kinsealy centre until the outcome of the investigation by the Committee of Public Accounts and the Comptroller and Auditor General is known. I understand that a decision some time ago to close the Teagasc facility in Naas, County Kildare, was ultimately reversed, and I ask the Minister to ensure, similarly, that the proposal for our Kinsealy station is reversed.

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