Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to give consideration to a plea from a group of farmers in the east Clare area to retain the Teagasc office as a service provider in the town of Scarriff. As Deputies know, there are proposals, decided on in light of budgetary requirements, to close a number of Teagasc offices across the country. While we must all take into account value for money and the lesser availability of funds to provide for various services, there is a strong case to be made for Scarriff in particular.

The office serves about 1,000 client farmers in the south Galway-east Clare area. Clare and Galway are seen as an administrative area and quite a number of farmers from the east and south Galway area, with which the Leas-Cheann Comhairle will be familiar, use the services at Scarriff. The proposal by the board of Teagasc is that services to those farmers now be provided in the town of Ennis, almost 50 km away. It makes no economic sense. The proposal to close the office in Scarriff and relocate the office to Ennis will not result in any saving either from a capital or from a revenue point of view. The four Teagasc advisers will remain on the staff as they will be required to meet the needs of the farmers in the area, and there will be additional costs associated with their expenses and the loss of time resulting from their having to come from an office over 40 km away to serve that farmer base. It does not make economic sense.

The proposal is to sell the building, which is fine, but in the long term there will be an increase in costs. The capital side of the programme will require the building of an extension at the office in Ennis at considerable cost to the State. Taking all the factors into account, there is no logical reason the Scarriff office in particular should be closed.

I am appealing to the Minister to make a special case to the board and the executive of Teagasc to re-evaluate the facts with regard to the Scarriff office. It is a unique situation because of the distance involved and the economics. The cost of running the office at the moment is relatively low and it generates considerable income not just from the farming community, but also from other potential uses of the office in the evening. I believe we should facilitate the retention of this office in the heart of a rural area. The east Clare office has been the central office for the provision of hen harrier advice because of the hen harrier designation that exists there and its removal would be a loss to the region. I am appealing to the Minister in this regard.

There needs to be a complete review of the Teagasc strategy, particularly in light of the proposals in Harvest 2020 and the necessity of ensuring the utilisation of land is at a maximum to enable us to meet the output required. If we do not have advisers working hand-in-hand with farmers on the ground, we will not reach those targets. Teagasc must rethink its entire strategy, which, as the Minister of State knows, has been moving back into research and away from the provision of advisory services on the ground. That is a retrograde step. The current economic situation and our greater dependence on our export sector, particularly food exports, should be food for thought - if Deputies will pardon the pun - for the board of Teagasc, which I hope will result in a complete re-evaluation of its strategy.

The argument for the retention of the service at Scarriff stands on its own merits on the basis of the cost savings. Cost was the original reason given for the closure of the office, but when one goes through the information in detail one can see there is clearly no justification for it. I appeal to the Minister to reflect on this and seek the assistance of the board of Teagasc in reversing that decision.

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