Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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Question 442: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the way he will subsidise farmers in County Donegal availing of laboratory facilities in the Six Counties as is the case for farmers based in the Six Counties [25964/11]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department's Regional Veterinary Laboratory in Sligo offers a subsidised veterinary laboratory diagnostic service to the farming community of the North West – any herdowner in Co Donegal is entitled to avail of this service - carcasses of animals that have died on farm and clinical specimens collected from live animals can be referred via the private veterinary practitioner attending the herd in question; laboratory findings are reported to the referring practice and the practice is invoiced for the testing fees.

The Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Northern Ireland offers a similar range of diagnostic services and on the same basis to the farming community in Northern Ireland from two centres, one located in Omagh and the other at Stormont. AFBI have two separate price-lists for diagnostic services, one for veterinary practices (herdowners) in Northern Ireland and the other for practices sending samples from outside Northern Ireland.

For comparative purposes AFBI currently charge veterinary practices in Northern Ireland £84 for post mortem examination of cattle over 18 months old whereas my Department charge veterinary practices in Ireland €25.35 for same.

Further details on the diagnostic services provided by DAFF and AFBI may be obtained in a recently launched joint report which is available to download from the Department's website at: http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/press/pressreleases/2011/september/title,58251,en.html