Written answer
Food Safety
Under a service agreement during the phased transfer, the Department funds the laboratory up to €860,000 annually; Cork County Council holds sample figures, and no Department-funded research projects are known since 2023.
386. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the funding for the Veterinary Food Safety Laboratory, Inniscarra, County Cork, provided by the Department before and after the transfer of local authority veterinary services to the Department on 1 January 2025; the number of samples tested there that were funded by the Department in each of the years 2023 to 2026; and the number of research projects the Department has funded there. [75191/26]
Comment on this
In July 2024, Government announced the phased transfer of official food controls undertaken by Local Authority Veterinary Services from the Department of Health to the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine.
As part of this agreement, my Department are currently engaged in a Service Level Agreement with the Veterinary Food Safety Laboratory - Cork County Council, which covers the phased transfer of official laboratory analyses from Cork County Council to my Department.
For the duration of the Service Level agreement, my Department provides funding of up to a ceiling of €860,000 per calendar year as agreed with Cork County Council.
The query regarding the number of funded samples that have been tested at the VFSL is a matter for Cork County Council.
I am not aware of any research projects that my Department has funded at this facility from 1st January 2023.