The relocation of the State's Marine Institute to the west coast highlights the potential success of decentralisation, the Minister for the Marine, Mr Dermot Ahern, has said.
Speaking at the topping out ceremony for the institute's new €50 million headquarters at Oranmore, Co Galway, Mr Ahern said the project was on target for completion in November next year. Most of the institute's scientific staff are already based in temporary premises in Galway's Parkmore business park.
The decision to relocate the Marine Institute preceded the Minister for Finance's decentralisation initiative, but it was a "practical example" of how this "can work", Mr Ahern said.
A time capsule containing contemporary items, including a copy of The Irish Times, was buried on the new institute's site yesterday by representatives of over 120 school pupils from Oranmore and Maree. The capsule will be opened in 100 years' time, and was part of a series of events, including a pirate party, organised for local schoolchildren yesterday.
Mr John Joyce, the Marine Institute's spokesman, said the aim was to convey some of the excitement of marine science to the next generation, and the potential offered by Ireland's 220 million acres of underwater territory.
Meanwhile, Mr Ahern has said he is committed to closing the Dublin Marine Rescue Co-Ordination Centre and has dismissed Labour Party criticism of the move.
The Labour Party's marine spokesman, Mr Tommy Broughan, said the move could have serious implications for safety on the Irish Sea, and he quoted a Commons select committee on transport in the UK as blaming continuing high marine casualty rates on the closure of three marine rescue co-ordination centres. Correspondence obtained by Mr Broughan under the Freedom of Information Act also showed that the director of the Irish Coast Guard, Capt Liam Kirwan, opposed the decision to close the Dublin centre.
