Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

People could be forgiven for asking when the attack on rural Ireland is going to stop. I do not intend to have a political moan in the normal way about the issues, although I could do so.

The scientific concerns expressed by the Veterinary Officers Association of Ireland stand up to scrutiny. This laboratory is of strategic importance to the entire north west. It is of strategic importance to achieving the complete surveillance system envisaged by Food Harvest 2020. The veterinary officers association has said that our enviable animal health and food safety reputation will be put at risk and that this could have a severe impact on the many farmers throughout one third of the country. The association maintains the contingency plan for exotic disease control needs a response time of less than two hours. Reducing the number of laboratories with the closure of Sligo would seriously hamper the potential to meet this requirement. We have an issue with any proposed collection service. The Minister has indicated that it would be based on the Netherlands, which is a far smaller country with full-time intensive farmers rather than our part-time farmers. We have infrastructure that can facilitate those people. There will be issues with regard to cross-contamination in any collection service. There will be issues in terms of a helpline filtering out animals that deserve post mortem examination.

There could be zoonoses or other conditions which, if detected, could protect against a serious outbreak of disease. It defies logic from the scientific, agricultural and farming support points of view. It also adds a further nail to the coffin of rural and regional Ireland. Notwithstanding the fact that some issues in this report might have to be addressed, the best way to deal with them is not through the closure of this laboratory.

See this speech in context