Tony McLoughlin (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

When one looks at a map of this country, one can see where the other laboratories are located. Beneath a line from Galway to Dublin there is the large laboratory in Backweston in Dublin and the laboratories in Athlone, Limerick, Kilkenny and Cork. The only laboratory above the line is in Sligo and it serves that part of the country. I met some of the laboratory's staff members during the last two weeks. Sean McFadden has served for a long time in the laboratory and has worked extremely hard with Francis Gonley and J. J. Feeney. If the laboratory is closed, which they cannot even envisage, their concerns are about decreased surveillance, inadequate case histories, huge transport costs, cross-contamination, carcase quality, biosecurity and spread of disease. They say an investment in the regional veterinary laboratories is required to provide capital funding to improve and modernise the existing regional veterinary laboratory facilities, proper staffing and resources to achieve accreditation and an upgrade of the laboratory information management system, LIMS, to allow more efficient data analysis and integration with other data systems. Investment in the regional laboratories is an investment in the future of Irish agriculture.

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