This article is from page 26 of the 2009-09-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 26 JPG
A NEW< satellite District Veterinary Office could be established in Ennis at a fraction of the cost of providing centralised services in Limerick. According to Clare IFA, serious questions have also to be answered concerning the Department of Ag- riculture’s handling of the situation - with the department-owned Ennis offices to be closed in favour of the office at the Raheen Business Park in Limerick which costs the taxpayer almost €33,000 in rent and charges rele spaslevelaee Followings revelations last week that it would cost between €6.5m and €1l0m for the department to get out of their arrangement in rela- tion to the Limerick offices, it has emerged this week that they have paid €1,556,703 in rent and a further €147,319 in service charges since the lease on commenced in May of PAU Oey It has also emerged that the depart- ment had first intended to close the Limerick offices but changed their mind when the prohibitive rental ar- rangement became clear. “This will be a huge inconvenience to Clare farmers and will be a mas- sive drain, both in time and money. This raises serious questions over the procedure for procuring proper- ties being used by the Government. It seems obvious that the Government was weak in their management of this and it raises some serious ques- tions,’ said Michael Lynch, Clare President of the IFA. “There will have to be some sort of facility in Ennis. In the current cli- mate a limited number of services to be maintained in Ennis would be very cost effective. If we could retains some facilities, especially in relation to questions about the differ- ent government schemes and disease irradiation it would make a huge dif- ference.” In all, 42 offices are to be closed by the department and services cen- tralised to 16 upgraded facilities in a restructuring move which will see a saving €30m but the loss of 400 jobs. According to Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith, this is on the basis of several criteria including ownership of buildings. “If this was one of the criteria used and it was applied to the Ennis of- fice, it would be remaining open,” said Clare TD, Pat Breen (FG). ‘The Ennis office is not costing the department anything in terms of rent or leases. Also, the argument that centralising the service will provide better value for money does not wash either. Where are the cost savings in this proposal?”