Mr. Peadar Ó Scanaill:

No, it was not. The Vice Chairman is right. We recognised that this was coming. It was occurring in almost every other state in the world. The sale of practices was something the Veterinary Council could never be, and never was, involved in. It cannot stop that. We have no legislative powers to stop the sale or purchase of practices. Many practices had investment partners who were not vets. We have always regulated the service provided by the practice. We could not, in 2018, have made any statements about it, if we had not been doing it in 2008 or 1998. We were never involved in the sale, purchase or handover of any practices. There are sons of vets who would have been left practices in wills. I do not know. We never were involved in that. That said, however, the word "owner" is often used when operating is being talked about. Operation is different and we are very involved in that. The operator of a veterinary practice is a veterinary practitioner only.