Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 24 Feb 1999

Vol. 501 No. 1

Adjournment Debate. - Agricultural Colleges.

Mrs. T. Ahearn:

I am delighted that my constituency colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and Food, Deputy Davern, is here to reply. I am sure he will, or at least he should, support this important matter. It is disgraceful, unfair and unreasonable that private agricultural and horticultural colleges, such as Rockwell College in my constituency, have not received capital funding for a long time. A submission was made to Government in November 1997 to secure capital and maintenance funds in the budget, but there was no allocation. A further submission was made to secure funding in the 1998 budget, but it has also failed to secure funds. This is an unfair rebuke and a dismissal of those colleges, which provide more than 60 per cent of agricultural education.

At a time when money is available to invest in education, why is agricultural education being ignored and treated as the Cinderella of the system? The colleges are being continually fobbed off by Teagasc, the Department of Agriculture and Food and the Department of Finance with each of them claiming this is the responsibility of the other. No section appears to be concerned with the severe plight of private agricultural colleges. They have made facilities and assets, some amounting to almost £50 million, available for the use of the State, but capital investment is required to bring those facilities into line with progressive farming practices and other competitor colleges. I fear some colleges may face closure unless such investment is provided. We cannot and should not train young farmers without modern training facilities. I urge the Minister of State, Deputy Davern, to take this crisis seriously because the future of agriculture and the survival of our rural communities depends on ensuring our young farmers are properly trained and up to date on farming practices.

Mr. McGrath:

I thank my colleague, Deputy Ahearn, for sharing her time with me. I support everything she said about the seven private colleges. They provide 60 per cent of agricultural training, but they have been starved of capital and maintenance grants. They were given £200,000 in 1996 and £100,000 in 1997, but nothing since then. Prior to that, they got grant aid in 1987. It is unfair to ask them to put their resources – some amounting to £50 million – at the disposal of their students, while they are not given the level of assistance given to their competitors in the agricultural education sector, the colleges run by Teagasc. The private agricultural colleges compete with those colleges, but they have not been able to secure the capital funds they badly need.

I refer particularly to the Franciscan College in Multyfarnham where there are 38 permanent jobs. That number of jobs in a small village like Multyfarnham is as good as an industry and is extremely important to it. There are 92 students in that college taking first year agricultural courses, first year horticultural courses and second year dairy diploma courses. They need capital grants to upgrade their machinery and technology. The Minister of State, Deputy Davern, would be aware that agricultural technology is changing rapidly and unless students are kept updated on the new techniques, facilities and machines coming onstream, those young farmers when they graduate will not be able to compete. It is imperative they are kept updated on modern techniques.

We should examine the prospect of those colleges expanding to provide rural enterprise training. They could provide not only agricultural training, but, perhaps in conjunction with FÁS, training in other necessary skills and trades. They could expand the training they provide in rural Ireland and thereby help ensure people continue to live there. We should examine the provision by those colleges of such training and ensure they are given the necessary capital grant aid.

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and Food (Mr. Davern):

I thank the Deputies for raising this matter. I am extremely familiar with Rockwell College. I am an ex-Gormanstown student and I am also familiar with the college in Multyfarnham, which at one time was run by the late Fr. Thaddeus Kelly.

As indicated in my reply to a parliamentary question from Deputy Connaughton on this subject on 18 February last, the position is that Teagasc has responsibility for providing training services in agriculture and horticulture, in accordance with section 4 (1) (a) of the Agriculture (Research, Training and Advice) Act, 1988. In conformity with the statutory position, public funding from the Exchequer and the European Union for agricultural and horticultural training is provided to Teagasc. It is a matter for that body to allocate its financial resources as it determines, subject to the provisions of the legislation. I understand Teagasc allocated maintenance grants of £200,000 and £100,000 to the private colleges in 1996 and 1997, respectively, and recently decided to allocate £90,000 to enable the colleges carry out certain essential works.

Teagasc made a submission to my Department seeking substantial funding from the Exchequer over five years to meet the capital development needs of all the agricultural and horticultural training facilities, that is, the Teagasc colleges, the private colleges and some local Teagasc training centres. My Department also received a detailed submission from the Agricultural and Horticultural Colleges' Association concerning the funding requirements of the residential colleges over the period 2000 to 2006. These submissions are receiving consideration. In this context, at my request, Teagasc commissioned a study on the likely future demand for training by new entrants and adults in agriculture, horticulture and forestry. This study, which is expected to be completed within a matter of months, will help to provide a basis for making informed decisions on public capital funding of agricultural and horticultural education for the future.

As Deputy McGrath said, agricultural technology is rapidly changing and the allocation of resources in this area will have to be examined to ensure they are distributed in a manner that best meets the interests of those in rural Ireland.