With the permission of the Chair I had arranged for Deputy Jim Mitchell to add some comments to mine if there was time available. I do not see him in the House but if he is not here by the time I have completed my contribution perhaps Deputy Shatter could add to my contribution.
Adjournment Debate. - Threatened Closure of Dublin Zoo.
I am sure that will prove satisfactory.
To stave off the threatened closure of the zoo we are asking the Minister and indeed, the Taoiseach who has commented, to change their hard faced uncompromising attitude and to rescue this beloved national institution. Towards the aim of saving the zoo, our party are making a modest proposal to solve the immediate crisis, which would cost very little. We are proposing that the Government make an interest free loan of £500,000 to the Zoological Society to tide them over this immediate crisis. Unless action is taken now the zoo will close before 1 April, well ahead even of the expected first or interim report in April of the committee of experts set up by the Government to report and make recommendations on the future financing of the zoo.
The crisis is now so acute that unless the Government do what they are asked and put in train our suggestion no later than tomorrow, the zoo will close because the bank who acts as the society's treasurer will not honour cheques issued by the zoo authorities after 17 March. The appeal for public funds will not yield anything like the desired amount to assure the bank. The Taoiseach's intemperate dismissive comments on the plight of the zoo in a newspaper last Sunday were most unhelpful to the fund raising drive by public appeal. Since these events must happen in the inevitable run of things unless the Government act in the meantime, the director of the zoo will not have the money to feed the animals or to pay the wages and salaries of the 50 staff who keep the enclosures and grounds.
Ahead of this, plans have to be and are being made to effect some kind of orderly closure of the zoo with the dispersal of the 800 species of animals and birds, some to other zoos, and almost unthinkable, half of the animals and other creatures will have to be destroyed. These are the bald facts. There is nothing hypothetical, there is no supposition in what I have said. They are the bare facts.
The Government have had plenty of time to address the problem before allowing it to come to this sorry pass. In October 1988 the Zoological Society made a detailed report on the serious financial vulnerability of the zoo. No action was taken until May 1989 when the committee of experts was set up, but the committee were given no terms of reference or instruction to commence work until October 1989, and that only after the society had sent another detailed report on the dire situation. It has been known for years that the zoo was not generating from its own resources enough money to pay staff and to keep the animals fed. We know that the Government came to the rescue in 1985 with £250,000 and that two lots of lottery funding were given in 1987 and in 1989. These funds went to write off deficits and debts already accumulated.
We know that every worthwhile national and regional zoo in Europe, America, Australia and everywhere else, receives public funding. We need look no further than Belfast Zoo for an example. They receive £500,000 annually to fund maintainance costs plus a variable annual grant to cover all their capital costs in any one year. In the past decade this combination of State support for Belfast Zoo has meant that that zoo has received in excess of £10 million from the British Government or its agencies. Our proposals go nowhere near being so generous or so open-ended. We merely propose a fire brigade action to stop closure now. We are fully aware — as the Minister is — that the Government's commission of experts, who cannot finalise their work until at least June, have recommended publicly through their chairman that the Government give Dublin Zoo £250,000 immediately to forestall closure even before their first interim report on the crisis.
Dublin Zoo is the third oldest zoo in the world, only the zoos of Paris and London are older. They have a highly valued collection of animals, birds and aquatic creatures, many of them rare and endangered species. It is a truly national institution and loved by Dubliners; 160 years qualifies it to be part of our national heritage. It would be unthinkable to let it close. Whether it lives or dies is in the Minister's hands and we ask her to act.
I support Deputy Connor, the shadow spokesman for the Office of Public Works who are the owners of the zoo land. I also support his urgent plea to highlight the fact that this is not a fake or exaggerated crisis as the Taoiseach seemed to think a few days ago. This will come to a head unless immediate relief is given to the zoo.
It is right that a working party should have been set up to look at the future of the zoo and how it might be improved. However, the position is so urgent that it cannot await even the interim report of the working party expected in April. Money is needed now and if the Minister and the Government cannot, in advance of the report of the working party, rise to giving the zoo a grant from the national lottery or some other source, they should advance an interest free loan to tide them over until the report is received. That is an eminently reasonable proposal and I do not see why the Government could not do so as an interim solution to an urgent problem.
The zoo happens to be in my constituency but it is a national institution, it is treasured by all people, most of whom have had the pleasure of visiting it over the years. It has given them great pleasure and continues to give pleasure to tens of thousands of children each year. The zoo should not be closed, it should be extended. There was an application some years ago for extra land within the Phoenix Park but it was rejected by the Office of Public Works. That suggestion should now be considered because the 30 acres of the zoo are insufficient to house even their present collection of animals and other creatures. Many people consider that the animals in the zoo do not have enough space, there is more than enough space available in the open air surroundings of the Phoenix Park. I do not think that even the most avid conservationist or protectors of the Phoenix Park would object if extra acres, immediately adjacent to the zoo, were incorporated in it to give the animals extra space. However, that is a secondary issue tonight. The purpose of this debate and for calling a busy Minister back to the House so late at night is to appeal to her to take action very quickly. If they cannot give the zoo a grant they should consider an interest free loan.
I never thought, when I became Minister for Education, that I would be answerable for the zoo. Of course, primary responsibility for the zoo rests with the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland. Their objectives are the maintenance, exhibition, study for educational purposes of all species of living animals, the promotion of the study and knowledge of zoology and the cultivation of an interest in the conservation of animals. The area occupied by the zoo in the Phoenix Park is held by the society under licence from the Office of Public Works.
The involvement of my Department is that they are used simply as a channel through which funds are paid to the society. Prior to 1985 small State grants of between £2,000 and £5,000 per annum were paid through the Department of Education. In 1985, because of the zoo's serious financial position, a special grant of £250,000 was paid. The Members opposite will remember that the then Deputy Hussey was Minister for Education and, as far as I remember, there was an arrangement about school trips to the zoo either free or at a reduced rate. In 1987 I was approached by the president and the director of the zoo, a submission was made to the Government and another £250,000 was paid to them. On that occasion I met Mr. Wilson and Mr. Cooke of the zoo and they told me categorically that that would be the last State money they would need because they had a dramatic economic plan to put into operation, the details of which they gave me and which I submitted to Government. They were confident that matters would work out satisfactorily.
In 1989 the Government gave another £250,000 to the zoo with the proviso that the Royal Zoological Society allow a committee who were being set up to fully investigate all the activities of what is essentially a private society. The zoo also had their own method of raising income such as membership subscriptions, gate admissions, sponsorship and income from their restaurant and shop facilities.
Arising essentially from the sociey's serious financial position the Government set up a committee. Their terms of reference are: (a) to recommend on the future operation of Dublin Zoo, the approach to the keeping and caring of animals and related matters, taking account of any proposed EC legislation in the area; (b) to review the financial operation of the zoo with respect to income from all sources, including sponsorship, and expenditure; (c) to assess how the zoo can be made financially viable without public subvention and to recommend on the steps necessary to bring about the maximum possible financial viability; (d) to meet or receive submissions from interested parties and bodies regarding the operation of the zoo and (e) such other issues as may be relevant to the future operation of Dublin Zoo.
The members of the committee have wide professional expertise. The chairman, Mr. Michael Doyle, is a veterinary consultant and the other members are Mr. George Eaton, of Eaton Down, chartered accountants, Mr. Nicholas Jackson, chairman of the Conservation and Animal Management Committee of the Welsh Mountain Zoo and Mr. Noel Pearson, chairman of the Abbey Theatre. Each was chosen for his particular expertise and the committee are working very well. They meet regularly to pursue their task and are considering the publication of an interim report in April and then a final report later.
The committee have sought submissions from a wide spectrum of individuals and institutions and they have also appointed a professional market research organisation to establish on a scientific basis what the Irish public want from a zoo.
The Committee expect to be in a position to furnish a detailed report by 1 May 1990 and the question of further State aid will be considered in the context of their findings.
The Dáil adjourned at 11 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 1 March 1990.