Teagasc has come under the purview of An Bord Snip Nua, the outfit tasked with shaving €5.3bn from government spending in the South, with their laser cutting beam of interest.
Lots of different areas are being targeted for cutting - the agriculture sector looks to be in for its on fair share of pain if recommendations are acted upon.
The recommendation on Teagasc is pretty brutal - reduce Teagasc staff numbers, rationalize Teagasc and Department offices - to the tune of €37m.
Other cuts recommended for other agriculture programmes are no less brutal and as IFA president Padraig Walshe has stated it is "Dublin 4 economics" and "cuts the life out of" rural Ireland. An Bord Bia is also potentially in the fray.
The Bord it seems could be subsumed into the Department of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, with its expert promotion functions given to a reconstituted Enterprise Ireland.
Bord Bia would not comment on the proposals. A statement from Bord Bia said: “The proposals made by the expenditure review group are a matter for the Government to consider, and Bord Bia has no comment to make on them.” Although elsewhere, the Bord’s head man Aidan Cotter expressed surprise at the proposed recommendations.
The economic philosophy of the whole debacle is interesting - contrasting the Irish experiment in cutting its way out the jaws of bankruptcy and the British attempt at quantitative easing and spending one’s way out of the danger zone - it will be interesting to see if either philosophy works - perhaps both will. Sam Goldwyn's aphorism is apposite: "Making predictions is difficult, particularly about the future."
