Department of Agriculture offices close after 42 years

AFTER 42 years of providing a local service to farmers all over Clare, the offices of the Department of Agriculture on the Kilrush Road in Ennis, are closing to the public this Friday.
A spokesman for the department said that the change arises from the reorganisation of the department’s network of local offices announced last July and will provide a fully integrated service to farmers and the wider agri-food sector at regional level.
There are 51 staff attached to the Ennis office. “The majority of staff will continue to operate in their respective areas of the county with a number redeploying to other departments. The headquarters for the Clare region is transferring to Limerick regional office,” the spokesman added.
It is understood that approximately 20 administration staff from the agricultural offices will be redeployed to the social welfare offices on the Kilrush Road. The 12 veterinary technical staff attached to the office will continue to operate from the Ennis office but the nature of their work means that they are out of the office a considerable amount of the time. A further 18 staff who work in the areas of single-farm payments and farm development, will continue to work from the same offices but there will be no facility for the public to come to the office.
Staff have said that they feel very bad for the members of the public who are used to dealing with them over a period of many years, who will now have to travel to Raheen, Limerick, to do their business.
“It is 27 miles from the offices here on the Kilrush Road to the Raheen Industrial Estate but it is much farther, approximately 65 miles from Loop Head, to their nearest agricultural office. That isn’t right for people. Also, they have built a rapport with staff here over the years and will be facing new people in their future dealings, so it will be difficult for them,” one staff members said.
Fine Gael Clare TD Pat Breen has described the closure of the offices as an “end of an era for Clare farmers”.
“The local office provided a very valuable and convenient service to Clare farmers. It was very convenient for farmers who lost cards or tags for example they could just drop into the office when they were in Ennis on mart day. It will now be very inconvenient for farmers especially in West and North Clare who will have to travel to Limerick to do their business and the reality is that the location of the Limerick office is hard enough to find at the best of times and it is located at the far side of the city. I would like to thank and acknowledge the staff in the office for the service they provided for Clare farmers down through the years,” he said. He added that Clare is the only county in Munster now without a local agricultural office. “More and more basic services are being removed from rural communities and this decision to close the local agriculture office in Ennis is another backward step,” he commented.