The Irish Seal Sanctuary has announced its closure after an expected allocation of money for capital funding in this year’s Budget failed to materialise.
The sanctuary’s Mr Brendan Price said they had been led to believe by the Taoiseach’s Department that a one-off capital funding of £1.8 million would be given to them in the Budget to develop a seven-acre site in north county Dublin.
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A grey seal pup, the world’s first protected species.
Photo by Jeff Scher courtesy of the Irish Seal Sanctuary |
A spokesperson for the Government said there had been talks between the Department of the Taoiseach and the Irish Seal Sanctuary but that no commitment had been made and that the issue was still under consideration.
However, Mr Price said they had had no word from the Department since the Budget.
Mr Price who, along with his wife Mary, founded the operation 16 years ago, said a community and social service had been lost to Ireland.
"We had managed to keep it going for the last 12 months in expectation of this money being made available but when we talked on Budget night we had no choice but to close and cease our operations," he said. "There is going to be a huge vacuum in our wake".
The Irish Seal Sanctuary was run by four full-time volunteers and was called on to help 58 distressed common or grey seals last year and 36 so far this year.
The site they had hoped to develop would have provided pools for up to 50 seals, accommodation for volunteers, training in seal rescue and oil-spill response and education for the public.
"The volunteers have world-recognised skills, the network is in place and all we needed was the capital funding. In the Budget we got not a mention, not an acknowledgment and not a penny," Mr Price said.