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In a historic move, all of the country’s main farm organisations have united to defend the future of the Regional Veterinary Lab (RVL) in Sligo.
Some 400 farmers attended a protest at the RVL on Wednesday where representatives of the IFA, the ICSA, the ICMSA, Macra and the INHFA all came out in force to show their support to retain the lab.
The Irish Farmers Journal exclusively revealed last month that a major review of the RVL structure is under way. The review was completed before Christmas and had six recommendations.
Listen to "Voices from the Sligo vet lab protest" on Spreaker.
One of the recommendations from the report is to close the labs in Limerick, Sligo and Kilkenny, with an upgrading of the facilities at the other three labs in Athlone, Cork and Backweston.
Another recommendation is to close all bar Backweston and put out a fleet of vans on the road to carry out the roles of vets in the various RVLs.
The lab in Sligo is the third busiest lab in the country, and it carries out some 3,000 post-mortems a year.
Gabriel Gilmartin at the RVL protest in Sligo
JP Cowley is the IFA’s Sligo chair and he urged the Department to do all in its power to keep the Sligo lab open.
He said: “It is critical that the existing structures are maintained and built on to ensure they are fit for purpose and continue to deliver real value to farmers in the northwest.”
Sligo ICSA chair Gabriel Gilmartin said if the Sligo lab was to close, it would be “another nail in the coffin of the west”.
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