266. Deputy John Perry asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to outline his views on the future of the regional veterinary laboratory based at Fawcett's Bridge, Doonally, County Sligo to ensure its vital work in monitoring and testing animal diseases and controlling exotic diseases continues. [40160/15]

My Department’s Regional Veterinary Laboratory at Fawcett’s Bridge, Doonally, County Sligo continues to operate as heretofore. It continues to provide a range of laboratory diagnostic support services to the farming community in the North West region through the private veterinary practitioners attending their herds and flocks.

My Department is committed to undertaking a Strategic Review of its Laboratories as part of an Integrated Reform Delivery Plan agreed with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. The working group undertaking the Review is considering all of the Department’s laboratories, and was convened in January 2015, under an external chairman, Professor Alan Reilly, with the following Terms of Reference:

1. To define the laboratory services and expertise that the Department requires at present and in the foreseeable future;

2. To consider how these laboratory services and expertise can best be delivered; and

3. To outline an implementation plan, including timescale, for proposed changes.

A report from this group is expected in due course.