Jack Wall
Question:125 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the plans his Department has in relation to the Tully Bull Station, Tully, Kildare Town, County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14891/02]
Written Answers. - Cattle Breeding.
In the latter half of the 1990s my Department reviewed how cattle breeding infrastructures could be improved. This review process resulted in, amongst other measures, the establishment of The Irish Cattle Breeding Federation, ICBF. ICBF is an industry led and largely industry funded co-operative whose objective is to achieve the greatest possible genetic improvement in the national cattle herd for the benefit of farmers, the dairy and beef industries and for the members of ICBF – AI, milk recording, herd book and farmer representatives.
My Department is in the process of transferring responsibility for the operational aspects of cattle breeding to ICBF. To date ICBF has taken responsibility for the co-ordination and supervision of the milk recording field service. ICBF has also taken over responsibility for the management of the genetic and the linear evaluations for the dairy and beef herds. The next step in this process is the imminent hand-over, by way of a lease agreement, of the central performance testing station located at Tully, County Kildare to ICBF. It should be noted that while the central performance testing station at Tully has, since its establishment, been operated by the Department of Agriculture and Food management and policy issues relating to the operation of the station have already been delegated to ICBF for some time now. Government Decision S.29854, taken in June 1997 provided for the short to medium term lease of the facilities of the central performance testing station, Tully, for a nominal rent to ICBF for their continued use for performance testing. In accordance with the above decision, plans are now at an advanced stage for ICBF to take over the running of the testing station on 15 July 2002 on the basis of an initial short-term two-year lease. The situation will be reviewed at the end of the two years with a view to arriving at a more permanent arrangement.