Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy McConalogue for raising this issue. My colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, is currently on what seems to be a weekly Brexit-related tour of EU member states.

He was in Estonia yesterday and is in Poland today so he asked me to take this topical issue, which I believe was listed for yesterday.

Apart from a regional veterinary laboratory, RVL, that is co-located with my Department's central laboratory complex at Backweston, County Kildare, my Department operates five other RVLs, which are located at the outskirts of Athlone, Cork, Kilkenny, Limerick and Sligo. Each RVL has a small multidisciplinary team, typically comprising 12 people, including three veterinarians, three laboratory analysts and six support staff. The RVLs have three principal roles: to provide a veterinary laboratory diagnostic service to the farming community through their veterinary practitioners; to collect and publish data on the pattern and frequency of diseases in farmed animals; and to assist in the investigation of incidents or outbreaks of disease of particular animal, environmental or public health significance.

The RVLs provide a diagnostic service to the farming community through private veterinary practitioners, accepting carcasses of animals for post mortem examination and clinical samples - blood, milk, faeces etc. - collected on farm for analysis. All submissions are voluntary and a small fee is charged for most submissions. Each RVL has an effective catchment area for voluntary carcass submissions. Some 90% come from within a 65 km radius or an approximately 1.5 hour drive with a car and trailer. The information derived from providing this service, when aggregated, forms the basis of monthly and annual surveillance reports on animal diseases.

It is essential that we develop a long-term strategy for our laboratories that builds on existing capability and expertise in animal health, food safety and plant sciences and ensures we achieve both operational and scientific excellence. This was the primary reason for tasking a working group, led by Professor Alan Reilly, with undertaking a comprehensive review of our laboratories. Having considered the current and future needs of the Department and its external stakeholders, this working group presented a report to my Department late last year that makes recommendations on the oversight and co-ordination of the laboratories' activities; re-organisation of structures and functions within the central laboratory complex; options for the future development of the regional laboratories, with a view to improving disease investigative and surveillance capability but with the overriding imperative of maintaining and enhancing services to farmers; and human resources management within the laboratories, with a focus on grading structures, career development opportunities and workforce planning.

My Department's laboratory management team is now consulting relevant stakeholders, including staff in all of the laboratories, on these recommendations. It is important to emphasise that a decision on any of the working group's recommendations will require waiting for the outcome of this process. In the case of the RVLs, any decision will be informed by a cost-benefit analysis of the various options that have been proposed. I will refer to some of the specifics in response to the supplementary questions.

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