Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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269. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the amount it costs to remedy a recent design fault in the newly designed category four high containment laboratory at the Backweston facility in County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10806/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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My Department in collaboration with the Office of Public Works is currently developing a high containment laboratory at Backweston to enhance our National capability in the laboratory diagnosis of exotic viral diseases of farmed animals. An outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease in the UK in 2007 attributable to an escape of live virus from Pirbright was the prompt for us to upgrade a pre-existing laboratory space within the Backweston Laboratory Complex to the highest attainable international standard.  A specialist US engineering firm was contracted to ensure the integrity of the design and to have confidence that the project would deliver a facility to the required certified standard. The tendered cost of the main building works were € 4.9 million excluding VAT.

During the construction works an underlying issue in the fabric of the original building was discovered. Although this does not affect the stability of the structure, it had the potential to compromise containment. The engineering solution to rectify this problem and the associated project delays have cost an additional €219,572. Building works are currently scheduled to be completed in early May 2017. On completion we will have the laboratory infrastructure required for safe, rapid and reliable laboratory diagnosis of exotic viral disease – this self-reliance constitutes a critical support for our expanding, export-dependent livestock sectors.