Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If the council cannot control matters such as price and yet allows owners who will be driven by profit, it cannot have control. I have seen it in my own county. The fees for out-of-hours calls increase to €500. Vets cannot feasibly be available to carry out their duties in that situation. The council does not have control over ensuring veterinary services are available whenever they are needed. It does not have control over that particular aspect.

I will make one final point with regard to the cherry-picking of customers and letting non-profitable customers go. What obligations fall on individual practices? In my own county I am well aware of a situation in which a large practice was closed after being bought by lay owners. This removed a very significant veterinary service for large parts of the county. There is real difficulty and challenges as to how these areas will now be served. Will the witnesses comment on that particular issue? How can it be ensured, from the Veterinary Council of Ireland's point of view, that there will be service in that area, in which there is no practice? That is important. On cherry-picking customers and leaving small customers adrift, what obligations fall on vets in scenarios where a person is no longer a customer of the practice? What obligations are on a vet to provide service to such a person, particularly where it may not be profitable to do so?