Mr. Peadar Ó Scanaill:

We glean that from what members have said. There is no doubt that we are not looking back and saying that it was our finest hour. We know, with the benefit of hindsight, that the consultation should have occurred before 2017. We are stating, however, that good will come of this. We are seriously chewing over this issue.

Deputy Martin Kenny inquired as to what will happen if corporate entities buy practices and who will own and run them? The running of practices is the focus of the Veterinary Council. The question is who is providing the service, for reward or otherwise, to a third party. That is where we have always been. If a practitioner owns a practice and is married, does his spouse own half of it? Is that the law of the land? Ownership was not a question we went into. We looked into the operation of the practice. If I happened to have borrowed in the bad times, for example, the bank would have owned a lot more of me than I ever owned, but it could not influence my decisions or tell me how many blood tests to run, how many X-rays to perform or how many bottles of this or that to prescribe. Those decisions are mine alone. I operate the practice and I provide the service. The Act is quite clear on that. A body corporate cannot get involved in that and nor can a vet help it to do so. A body corporate cannot provide any service. The legislation refers to "any act, matter or thing the doing or performance of which forms part of the practice of veterinary medicine". The reference to veterinary medicine means that it is a vet and a vet only. The reference to a veterinary nurse is only in respect of veterinary nursing.

It would have been nicer for Ms Muldoon and I to come before the committee when our consultation was complete and at which time we could inform it to as to the point we had reached. We will be available to do that the moment we have more information.