A dead seal was dropped in front of Leinster House yesterday in protest at the closure of the Irish Seal Sanctuary in Garristown, Co Dublin. The sanctuary was closed because of lack of funding.
Mr Brendan Price, of the sanctuary, could not be contacted yesterday, but on an answering machine message on the sanctuary's number he said that "directly arising from Budget Day and the Government's failure to make a one-off capital development cost of £1.8 million, all operations have now ceased", after 16 years.
Animals at the seal sanctuary "are being prepared for release or shipment abroad", the message continued, and former volunteers would assist in moving animals out of Ireland because "wildlife cannot find sanctuary here". Last week in the Dβil, the Minister for Arts and Heritage, Ms de Valera, said her department could only provide funding on the basis of conservation, but that conservation was not a problem for the Irish seal population.
The sanctuary had sought the capital funding for the Garristown operation and to open another sanctuary in Rogerstown.
Fine Gael's Marine spokesman, Mr Alan Dukes, said that even if the sanctuary's work was not conservation "there is still nothing to stop the Government making a grant, if the political will is there".
He said the Minister for Agriculture had announced £500,000 in grants for animal welfare organisations, even though none of them was supporting an endangered species.
