Agricultural research will be severely damaged if AFBI, the scientific and research arm of DARD is restricted to its budget and has to lose 400 staff by 2018, MLAs heard this week.

Officials from AFBI were giving evidence to the Assembly’s Agricutlure and Rural Development Committee about the effects of the budget for 2015/16.

Professor Seamus Kennedy, Chief Executive Officer with AFBI, who was joined by Dr. Sinclair Mayne, Departmental Scientific Officer and Dr. Stanley McDowell, senior veterinary research officer, said they would have to exercise the voluntary exodus scheme like other parts of DARD and that would mean 400 staff jobs being lost. But the difficulty in this sector was the high level of expertise of his staff who have scientific backgrounds.

Dr. Mayne went on to explain how more experienced scientists worked for years with younger staff so that they would gain the knowledge accrued over many years.

It would mean that if the cuts were implemented, AFBI would only be able to concentrate on their statutory functions which would include disease testing and leave very little revenue and staff for research Dr. Kennedy said that they would certainly not be able to carry out the work programme of last year, if the cuts were made. Funding to AFBI comes from various means, from DARD as well as some royalties and around £1m a year from the EU to support research projects.

Answering a question from Fermanagh MLA, Tom Elliott about their collaborative work, Professor Kennedy said they had good links with Queen’s University who did not have any access for field projects but one step forward might be inviting Teagasc to use some parts of the AFBI estate to carry out research.

AFBI runs functions at two veterinary sites at Stormont and Omagh; the Hillsborough Research Farm, Loughgall Grass Breeding Station, Crossnacreevy Plant Testing Station, Newforge and Bushmills salmon research facility. Professor Kennedy said some parts of the estate were in need of upgrading but they inherited the facilities in 2006. If they had a blank sheet, they would reconfigure the facilities differently.

He admitted, after a number of MLAs praised the Loughghall Grass Breeding Station, that this was the “jewel in the crown” of AFBI.

He said it would not be easy to carry on its functions beyond 2018 if the cuts were implemented and said they were constraining their services when their competitors in the Republic of Ireland and mainland UK were expanding theirs.

Cutting back would mean a step backwards in scientific research.

The Committee Chairman, William Irwin said he had very serious concerns over AFBI’s funding and led the calls for the Committee to write strongly to the Agriculture Minister asking her to reconsider this.

He said the proposals were disproportionate and would have a detrimental effect on agricultural research.

Joe Byrne MLA described the funding cuts as “catastrophic” for the industry.

Edwin Poots suggested that if 400 jobs were lost in any community, they would be fighting to save them. But these were highly skilled posts and this woud have a knock-on effect on other parts of the industry.

“This is totally unreasonable and wholly unreasonable,” he said.