Seanad Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 17 Dec 1991

Vol. 130 No. 17

Adjournment Matter. - Clonroche Soft Fruit Centre.

Mr. H. Byrne

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for giving me the opportunity of raising the issue of the prospect of the closure of Clonroche Soft Fruit Centre. When I mentioned it earlier today somebody thought I was talking about a sweet. Clonroche is the only soft fruit centre in the country and currently employs six full-time workers — that may seem to be small — ten part-time workers and at present there are 15 FÁS workers there for nine months. The FÁS workers are engaged in a basic horticultural skills course which covers the work done at the centre. They do a full course on vegetable growing. Crazy figures like £400 million have been given to extimate the cost of imported vegetables which we should be growing ourselves. I am not sure the figure is accurate; I think the Minister present, Deputy Kirk, has said the figure is closer to £100 million. Whatever the figure, it is scandalous and one way of redressing the balance is to train people such as the 15 FÁS workers in Clonroche at present.

In relation to vegetable growing, not alone should we be able to halt importation but, because of our climate and expertise, we should become net exporters. The fact is we import £27 million of chipped potatoes each year, a crazy statistic in a country with a potato growing tradition and presumably a tremendous expertise in this area.

Some 450 farmers grow soft fruit at Clonroche and my collegue from Wexford, Senator Doyle to whom I would like to give some of my time on this subject, would agree that many a smallholder is being kept on the land because of strawberries; 450 farmers grow strawberries in Wexford. The industry is worth about £7 million nationally, the bulk of which comes from Wexford.

It should also be noted that Clonroche is in the geographical centre of the soft fruit industry. That is a vital advantage because small farmers growing fruit can drive to the centre, they do not have to invite the adviser out at a cost, they may get advice and be back home within a few minutes. I am told these people will be referred to Oak Park if Clonroche is closed and I hope the Minister tonight will tell us it will not be closed following the views we will express this evening. Five million pounds worth of strawberries are exported each year; this should be taken seriously. Clonroche is the only horticultural centre dealing with soft fruit.

Bee-keeping is a small industry which earns for 2,000 beekeepers and for this country £1 million per year. The only active beekeeping centre in the country is situated at Clonroche where progeny testing is carried out for better strains and to upgrade the industry. If Clonroche is closed the industry and enterprise of soft fruit and beekeeping will stagnate at first and then slowly decline because it will not be possible to remain competitive if research and advice are not available on site for the small farmer.

I was interested in today's Irish Press, that TDs have received assurances about Belclare. The article says that last night two Fine Gael TDs claimed they were given assurances by Teagasc Chairman, Joe Rea, that Belclare Research Centre would not be closed under any circumstances. The report says that Enda Kenny and Galway East TD, Paul Connaughton, were given categoric and specific assurances by both Joe Rea and Teagasc's director, Dr. Pierce Ryan that the centre would not be closed down. Mr. Kenny last night reportedly called on the Teagasc board to honour that commitment and assurance. I understand that Teagasc are meeting today and I would like the Minister to confirm or deny what I quoted from the paper. It is important that we be told whether assurances can be given beforehand on a station that was to close down, and I am disappointed no such assurance was given about Clonroche. Are things happening in places other than where they should be happening?

Approximately, 1,500 strawberry pickers — adults and children — from County Wexford are involved in the industry. Children earn pocket money and money to buy schoolbooks because generally they come from the smaller type farms and the worst off families. Many a household appliance has been bought from the proceeds of strawberry picking.

Having made the case for keeping Clonroche open, I would like to raise the subject of cost. The annual cost of the centre at Clonroche, excluding staff because they will be redeployed is £170,000. The annual income to Clonroche from a commercial farm selling vegetables and soft fruit is £123,000. The centre currently costs the country about £50,000 per annum and living in that constituency and having benefited from research and advice at clonroche I can tell the House that it is worth a lot more than £50,000 and it would be crazy to close it down.

It has been brought to my attention today that the Gorey Teagasc office is to be closed. I would be very disappointed if that were the case. I am not absolutely sure about it and I would like the Minister's views. I know that Joe Rea is chairman of Teagasc, Dr. Pierce Ryan, a Wexford man, is director and Teagasc themselves will have a major say in what, if anything, should close. Centres and area offices earning their keep should not be interfered with. The figures I have mentioned tonight and which are possibly on the conservative side were given to me by a decent group of workers at Clonroche who did not seek high publicity; they put their case to me and I have put it before you. I appeal to the Minister tonight in the light of what I have said and considering the employment situation in Wexford, to ensure that Clonroche does not close.

Mrs. Doyle

I thank Senator Byrne for sharing time with me on this important topic. To add to what he has said in relation to the threatened closure of the soft fruit research station in Clonroche comes appalling news this afternoon from the board of Teagasc that between 50 and 60 more jobs are to go in Johnstown castle. There are only 103 people left on the payroll in Johnstown Castle following the very severe redundancy programme implemented there over recent years. Now we hear that over 50 per cent of those left are, to quote the terminology used on these occasions nowadays, "surplus to requirements".

All I can suggest is that, in desperation, the board of Teagasc, because of genuine underfunding or whatever are choosing politically sensitive centres in different constituencies to force the hand of the Minister for Agriculture and Food, and through him the hand of the Minister for Finance. If it is a ploy to use constituencies and sensitive research centres like this, that ploy must be deplored. If this action is genuine attempt by the board to live within their means, we must look to the Government for answers, but this evening we look to the Minister for Horticulture, Deputy Kirk, to come to the aid of these two most important centres in County Wexford.

In relation to Clonroche, the statistics have been given but they bear repeating. Clonroche is the only soft fruit research station in the south-east, the major area of soft fruit farming. When we hear so much about Common Agricultural Policy reform, diversification, and alternative farm enterprises, how can the Government allow one of the few research centres that deals with an alternative enterprise to be closed down? It is unthinkable and I hope the Minister has an answer for us.

The same argument applies to the importance of bee-keeping, a small part of overall agricultural production but a most important one for the south-east where our climate, flora and fauna are particularly conducive to excellent honey production. Wexford honey is famed, as are Wexford strawberries and other soft fruit. We produce raspberries, gooseberries and other minority fruits; research is carried out to identify strains most suitable to our climate. Apart from that, there is the jam and contract market that could be expanded enormously if more attention were given to it. There is also the yoghourt and soft cheese markets where soft fruits of various kinds are used, a most popular area for growth.

The Minister has heard the figures and knows how cost efficient Clonroche is. Excluding salaries, the shortfall at Clonroche annually is only £47,000. It was the Minister's mission — and we supported it — and it is the mission of the Teagasc board to make each centre as self-sufficient as possible by charging for their services and recouping as much as the farmer or the public can afford for the service offered. No case can justify the closure of Clonroche, a modern, state of the art plant, highly cost efficient, one of the most cost efficient research centres in the country and located ideally for the job it has to do. Staff and management there are to be congratulated on the efficient and most important research centre they run.

If it is the Government's intention to abolish Teagasc by stealth, it would be more honest for the Minister to say so. Worse, to add credibility to this exercise, they have employed as their hatchetman the former head of a major farm organisation. The lack of sensitivity being displayed in the area of research and development indicts this Government, particularly the former Minister for Agriculture and Food. I hope, a Leas-Chathaoirligh, that the new man in the job, Minister Woods, himself an agricultural scientist, will display more sensitivity and appreciation for the importance of research and development and educational advice, particularly as farmers face into Common Agricultural Policy reform with a most uncertain future ahead of them and endure a difficult present with the collapse of farm incomes generally.

We only spend one-third of gross agricultural output on research as the EC generally and we are dependent on agriculture and agri-business as our major industry. We spent only one-sixth as much as the UK on agricultural research, and the UK is an industrial nation. Where are we going? What are this Government trying to do with Teagasc, our agricultural research, advice and education centres? What was Joe Rea been asked to do? We must request the Minister to state whether Mr. Rea has done the job he was appointed to do by the former Minister for Agriculture and Food, Deputy O'Kennedy. I appeal to the Minister of State, a man who appears to have some sensitivity, and the present Minister for Agriculture and Food, to ensure there will be no more closures of this insensitive kind that bear no relation to the needs of farmers as we approach the next century and try to compete not just with the twelve but with an enlarged European group of 24 or 30 nations, with eastern European problems, pressure from GATT negotiations, from the Cairns group of countries and from the US and we compare badly with other countries when it comes to money being pumped into agricultural research, education and development.

Only last Friday the former Minister for Agriculture was in Dublin and he addressed the Joint Committee on Secondary Legislation of the European Communities — we refer to that as the EC committee — of which I am a member. On Friday morning I travelled to Dublin especially to be part of the cross-party team that questioned Commissioner MacSharry on the implications of the Common Agricultural Policy reform for Ireland. One of the last points the Commissioner made and emphasised was the importance of agricultural research to the future of agriculture. I somewhat facetiously requested him to have a word in Joe Rea's ear before he flew back to Brussels. He was not slow to remind me that that was a national rather than an EC issue — we were talking about former colleagues at one stage.

If the Commissioner for Agriculture in Brussels can underline the importance of agricultural research for the family farm at this difficult time and to ensure a commercial future for farmers generally, how can the Government fail to recognise the importance of the work being done in the soft fruit and bee-keeping industries in Clonroche? Clonroche is a most efficient centre that asked for little money from this or from previous Governments. Similarly important work is being done in soil analysis and in a wide range of research areas in Johnstown Castle.

Finally, could I once again emphasise the importance of agriculture to this country? One sentence says it all, and yet we continue to decimate this industry by refusing a research back-up and advisory team for it. During the last few years Teagasc, under the present chairman managed to abolish the economic unit in Sandymount established to interpret the new directives coming from Brussels and to explain to the Irish, both officialdom and farmers, the importance of changes in the EC rules.

Forty two pence in every £1 of what we export comes from agriculture and agri-business, and yet we have decided to abolish the State advisory and research service that backs up this industry. This cannot be accepted and I trust there will be an explanation here tonight from a Minister who has shown sensitivity in this area. Otherwise I will conclude that this Government have washed their hands not just of Clonroche and the important work carried out there and not just of Johnstown Castle, but of other centres threatened with closure in recent weeks — as we read in farming newspapers and farming supplements in our national daily papers.

Debate on these closures has not taken place in this House as it should; it has been removed by the procedures set up by the previous Minister.

My final plea to the Minister of State, and through him to the present Minister for Agriculture and Food, Deputy Woods, whom I hope will exercise greater sensitivity to the agricultural research area, is that he will bring some sense into the dissemination of our agricultural research known as Teagasc, to put on the record how important the Government view this service, to bring our farmers forward in the face of common agricultural reform and worldwide pressures on their products. I urge the Minister to confirm tonight that there is no truth in the rumours in that the Teagasc centre in Clonroche is about to close and I ask him, and my colleague Senator Byrne will join with me, to ensure that the proposals from the board this afternoon do not lead to further decimation of the staff at Johnstown Castle.

Minister for State at the Department of Agriculture and Food (Mr. Kirk)

Under the Agriculture (Research Training and Advice) Act, 1988, Teagasc are charged with the provision of agricultural research training and advisory services. It is incumbent on the Authority to deliver these services in the most efficient and cost effective way. Indeed, the Government's objective when establishing Teagasc was to steamline and make more effective the delivery of these services.

Teagasc is a national organisation with considerable resources throughout the country. As such they must regularly review their activities in the light of changing circumstances. I understand the Authority are at present considering management proposals for the reoganisation of Teagasc's structures and operational programmes. These discussions are continuing and no final decisions have been reached by the Authority.

I am not aware of the reported assurances having been given by the Chairman of Teagasc of Deputy Kenny or Deputy Connaughton. All I can say is that proposals in relation to restructuring are under consideration and no final decisions have been taken by the Authority. Until such time as decisions are made by the Authority and submitted to me, it would be inappropriate for me to comment on them.

The Seanad adjourned at 9.30 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 18 December 1991.