Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I compliment the Chairman, Deputy Cahill, on bringing this legislation.

It is unfortunate it was not done a few years ago. I was not a member of the previous committee. I speak as somebody who is concerned from a peninsula in a very remote part where vets are already scarce. If they are allowed to go ahead with corporate companies running the show, I cannot see them basing themselves in places like Bantry, Castletownbere or Cahersiveen, but rather close to centres of big population, such as Cork city or nearby towns such as Bandon or Mallow. It might be possible to take a cat or a dog 50 or 60 miles to see a vet about an issue, but it is not possible to load up a cow that is calving out on the Mizen Peninsula, Castletownbere, the Sheep's Head Peninsula or wherever. That is not a practical option. Remote parts of Ireland suffer under the existing system.

If these big corporations are swallowing up all these veterinary practices, which Mr. Murphy says the regulations do not allow, why does the Veterinary Council of Ireland or the Department not take action? In many instances, if a farmer does something wrong with regard to cattle or his land, they are very quick to pounce and wave the big stick. There is a legal aspect to this. If these corporations have broken the regulations and are not compliant with the law as exists under the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, is there any mechanism that can be used to put the handbrake on them acting so quickly, particularly knowing that this legislation is going through? By the time it is signed into law by the President, another ten corporations might have swallowed up 60 or 70 veterinary practices. I ask for guidance on how we might be able to hold things up at the moment, at least until this amending legislation is brought into law.