My subject matter on the Adjournment relates to the Ballinamore Research Station. I should like to give the background to the actual research station. Ballinamore Research Centre was opened by An Foras Talúntais in October 1959 very soon after AFT were set up. Sixty acres of land were purchased from a gentleman about two miles from Ballinamore and six workmen, together with the first director, Basil Regan, set about putting them into order. Over the next quarter of a century activities increased and very important work was done to enable the large number of farm holders on dauby drumlin soils to improve their position. Roughly 15 acres in the vicinity were obtained and an additional about 220 acres at Creevy and about 20 acres at Gorvagh were leased for appropriate use.
The number employed increased under subsequent officers in charge. The number of employees was increased to 15 and more recently it settled at ten. One of the directors, Mr. Mulqueen, developed an all-weather playing pitch, the prototype of which was established nearby at St. Felim's College in Ballinamore. The use of sand and drainage enabled playing surfaces to be laid on wet dauby land which could be used for sports activities in mid-winter. Many pitches with this type of surface have been laid in places as far away as Kerry. This was one of the major breakthroughs from the research station in Ballinamore.
When the last director was moved to Grange about two and a half years ago no graduate was put in charge. Since then one of the technicians has been the officer in charge of the station. I saw this as the first phase of a process towards closure of the station. The present proposal to cease research at Ballinamore is the second phase. The undefined role of the "transmission farm" is but the half-way house towards complete closure. The facility may remain as a depot for the remnant of the old ACOT service at least for some time but an important aspect of the Teagasc remit, namely research, will be no more. It would not be a good step just to have the station there as a place to put some ACOT employees. Teagasc have stated that they will keep one technician and about one or two farm workers. Nobody needs to explain that research with that amount of staff would be almost impossible. It would only be a function of keeping the station alive which in the short term would be uneconomic and in the long term would mean closure. That would be a farcical gesture on the part of any board.
Research is now to be effectively terminated in the wetlands and in the province of Connacht. Connacht has already lost AFT research stations. Now two more are to be closed and a third, Ballinamore, is to be reduced to a mere ghost of its former self. This, in spite of the fact that EC drainage experts who visited this county early in 1986 reported that the provision of effective drainage systems on west of Ireland farms is a matter of survival for the farmers and not a means of boosting production, that field drainage is necessary in these regions to improve the socio-economic environment and to preserve the rural fabric of the region and that the provision of water management information is necessary for the proper development of these regions. It would appear from this that the proposed cessation of research at Ballinamore is not in conformity with EC policy regarding the preservation of the family farm.
Arising from this it must be clear that there is an acute pollution problem in areas such as this. In the vicinity of Ballinamore we have something like 65 lakes in a ten mile radius where coarse angling is a major tourist attraction. It is one of the Government's priorities that tourism should be boosted. Many farmers have run into problems with pollution of these lakes and they have been asked to provide very elaborate buildings on small holdings of 35 to 40 acres of land. Even with the minimal grant of 35 per cent from the western package of the EC they find this very hard to do. Surely continued and appropriate research at Ballinamore is preferable to pollution prosecutions and the bad feelings between farming and tourist interests which are consequent on this.
Dairying is a very important aspect of life on the family farm in Leitrim. The dairy enterprise at Ballinamore centre should be expanded rather than contracted. It could be tailored to boost the quality and quantity of winter feed. This area suffered very badly in the winters of 1985 and 1986 and I would like to put on the record of this House that the staff in the research station in Ballinamore provided a lot of help and assistance to farmers in that area so that fodder could be provided. They must be congratulated because they kept many a farmer in fodder for the winter when they decided to help. Otherwise we would not have been able to get that help and the farmers would not have been able to get fodder. It could also be used to investigate cheap methods of solving slurry holding and spreading problems, so peculiar to wetlands.
Other research which should be undertaken or continued includes: (a) economic assessment of drainage, (b) a suckler cow trial, (c) mixed stocking trial with sheep and cattle, i.e. dry stock and cows, (d) alternative farm enterprises. There is much talk about diversity in the western package at the moment and a research station would be able to help farmers with mushrooms, goats, rabbits, pigs and poultry. Also agro-forestry could be researched here.
There should be no reduction in staff in Ballinamore or transfer of Ballinamore staff further south. Graduate staff should be catered for adequately to enable the farming community to be given the quality of information they deserve. Ballinamore station should be the location where problems related to marginal land are tackled and resolved.
I would like to state why I think Ballinamore should not be downgraded. There is continued and, indeed, increased need for research to improve the lot of those living in the wetlands area because the survival of the family farm is at risk with the various social and economic consequences. Ballinamore is the ideal place to do this research. It is quite cheap costwise. In Ballinamore we are of the opinion that station costs are very reasonable. Ballinamore is by far the most northerly station in the Teagasc network. Should all research activity now be brought down to south of the Galway-Dublin borderline? Should not the research be done where the problems are? Is there to be no further research in the northern part of the country? Should the problems to Connacht bear such a huge part of Teagasc cutbacks while Munster bears very little, if any? Should the stronger and wealthier areas prosper more as a result of policies which send the weaker closer to the wall? That outlines the situation at the moment. One of the reasons Teagasc was formed was to help research but apparently the whole Connacht region wetlands have been forgotten. It is almost a case of going back to the old Cromwellian statement, "To Hell or to Connacht". The Government have a social obligation to look after each section of the community.
Ballinamore is situated in a Border county. There is scope for North-South co-operation in this area. There should also be increasing scope for external funding. We do not know what the future may bring for this entire area of activity. The all-weather pitch project was an example of North-South co-operation. It was also adopted by an institute in Ennis-killen and this worked very well for the people involved north and south of the Border. If the Government are looking for funding to keep the research station open on a temporary basis, the present international fund could be looked at because of the close proximity to Northern Ireland.
Ballinamore needs those jobs more than any place to which they might be transferred. Leitrim is the only county losing its population since 1966. No public service job should be taken out of Leitrim until this trend is reversed. Leitrim is the only county in the vicinity which does not benefit from current or proposed redevelopment of civil servants or location of military barracks. This is the only area of optional State job location which we have and it should not be removed. That is a very valid point; as well as the research and agricultural aspect there is a social aspect. I am thinking of the Thurles sugar factory where 175 jobs are going but the loss of ten jobs in Leitrim is as big a blow to a small economic area. I have no doubt that the Minister will have long and hard consultations about the 175 jobs in Thurles. Ten jobs in Ballinamore are very important to the structural and economic development of the area. Ten jobs in a national context seem very little but are a major consideration in the light of our needs in Leitrim.
I call on the Minister to extract the Ballinamore proposals from the remainder of the Teagasc plan and base his action on social principles. The board should be asked to make the necessary minor adjustments to accommodate this.
