Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator Finucane for raising this important matter in the House this evening. In his 2003 budget speech, the then Minister for Finance announced the decentralisation of 10,300 public service staff to 53 centres in 25 counties, including eight Department headquarters. The Government's decision on the locations and numbers involved in the decentralisation of the Department of Agriculture and Food included approximately 100 staff to Macroom, County Cork, scheduled for 2009. The Cabinet sub-committee on decentralisation decided in April 2004 to rationalise the Department's laboratories in the Munster region and relocate them to Macroom.

The Limerick laboratories being decentralised are a dairy science laboratory on Killeely Road and the veterinary research laboratory located in Knockalisheen. The relocation to Macroom will free up the sites of the existing dairy science and veterinary research laboratories in Limerick comprising approximately one acre at Killeely Road and Knockalisheen. The Cork laboratories to be decentralised are also a dairy science laboratory, a veterinary research laboratory and a brucellosis laboratory, all located on the Model Farm Road, Cork. My Department has agreed to give the land at Model Farm Road, amounting to approximately ten acres, to the affordable housing initiative.

My Department considers that building a new state-of-the-art facility on a greenfield site willallow it to amalgamate the two existing laboratories in Limerick and the three in Cork into a single efficient and modern complex. It will enable the Department to continue to meet its commitments to food safety into the future, allow the laboratories to achieve accreditation status, which is essential if they are to continue to carry out their work, facilitate compliance with EU regulations, allow the achievement of efficiencies and allow implementation of the recommendation of the expenditure review of the Department's dairy science laboratories. This review recommended that my Department's dairy science laboratories should be reduced from three to two. It would also align my Department's facilities to the changing structure of the agriculture and food sector.

Many factors favour the new proposals, including location. The location of the Cork laboratories in a residential area such as Model Farm Road is not suitable. A greenfield site is more appropriate and should prove less obtrusive to its neighbours. Another factor is cost. Very little investment has been made in the Munster laboratories in the past decade. The laboratories are not accredited and updating them to achieve accreditation status would be expensive. Another factor is EU regulations and accreditation requirements. My Department's work requires that it achieves accreditation status in order to be allowed to continue to carry out its work. Another factor is the Government's decision of 28 December 2003 to allocate the Model Farm Road site to the affordable housing initiative. Decentralisation is another consideration. The Government's decentralisation programme committed my Department to relocate the five Munster laboratories to a new state-of-the-art complex in Macroom.

Ensuring food safety and quality are essential elements of my Department's work with approximately half of the Department's staff dedicated to that task. My Department's laboratory services play a vital role in that process. I am confident that a new laboratory facility in Macroom will enhance its capacity in that regard.