Anger over sale of Teagasc farm

Circumstances surrounding the sale of a Teagasc farm and research centre in Ballinamore, Co Leitrim are to be raised in the Dáil today after a €570,000 bid from the local community was beaten by just €15,000.

Teagasc board member Ruaidhrí Deasy was among those to express outrage at the decision not to accept the bid from the Breffni Development Group.

Mr Deasy, deputy IFA president, said that Teagasc may have been within its legal rights but its decision was "morally wrong".

Independent MEP and Sligo/Leitrim TD Marian Harkin is to raise the matter in the Dáil today. "Teagasc has not just walked on the people of Ballinamore - it has stuck its heel in them," she said.

The decision in 2003 to sell off the Teagasc farm, which has been based in Ballinamore since the 1960s, led to protests in the town. In March 2004, gardaí in riot gear were brought in when farmers and business people tried to stop cattle from being removed.

IFA leader John Dillon and former Fine Gael TD Gerry Reynolds were among dozens of protesters to have their names taken by gardaí during the protest.

The board of Teagasc voted to accept a bid for the 70-acre farm and office building at a special meeting on Friday evening to the anger of local campaigners who say they had been given an assurance by the Minister for Agriculture that any bid from them would be treated sympathetically.

Teagasc insisted yesterday that the "game is over" and said it had accepted the highest bid as it was legally obliged to do. "Otherwise we could end up in the High Court," said Tom Kirley, director of administration with Teagasc. He said contracts had been signed and a deposit accepted.

He described the narrow margin between the two top bids as "irrelevant" and said a lower bid could only be accepted in "extraordinary circumstances".

Local Sinn Féin councillor Martin Kenny, a member of the Breffni Development Group, disputed this. He said that in a letter to local IFA members last March Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan said Teagasc would be supportive of an offer from a community group or trust.

Cllr Kenny said the community had already met with Peter Quinn Business Consultants with a view to examining a number of options for the property. A proposal to maintain the farm and develop a care centre for the elderly was one option being explored.

Ms Harkin said it was "disquieting" that Teagasc had bowed to political pressures in other areas where plans to sell property had been abandoned but yet this had not been possible in Ballinamore.