A NEW €25 million Dairy Processing Technology Centre (DPTC) is to be established at the University of Limerick, Ministers Richard Bruton and Simon Coveney announced this week.
The DPTC is a collaboration of eight companies, including Arrabawn Co-op, Dairygold and Glanbia, and ten research performing organisations (RPOs), creating 52 new jobs for highly-skilled researchers over the five-year term of the centre.
It is hoped that the €25 million investment by Government and industry will position Ireland as a world leader in dairy innovation, and help to maximise long-term growth opportunities created by the anticipated increase of 50 per cent in the Irish milk pool by 2020 due to the abolition of milk quotas.
Chairperson of Limerick ICMSA Thomas Blackburn welcomed the announcement, but also urged UL to ”go further and introduce specialist undergraduate and postgraduate courses in agri-economics and other agri-related disciplines so that Limerick can position itself as a food hub and centre of excellence”.
The farmer from Effin added: “UCC and CIT have really taken this onto the next level, and it’s a pity that our local third levels were so slow to see the massive pay-off that developing an expertise in this huge area of economic activity could bring. ICMSA has the policies, expertise and commitment, we just need our universities and policy makers to work with us and move it forward.”
