Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

When I talk about regulation and human health, I am talking principally about the regulation of the supply and sale of drugs. It is clear to me lay owners are outside the VCI's remit and that it has no power to regulate them. I can give an instance where a lay operator owned a practice and the vet he had working there left and that practice continued to sell drugs even after that vet had left the practice. For a two-month period there was no vet working in that practice.

This clearly shows that the Veterinary Council is not able to regulate lay owners of veterinary practices in the way it would want to. That is the point I was making. I do not expect the council to be able to ensure that there is a service in every part of the country. That is not the council's job and people will decide, mostly for financial reasons, whether an area is viable. Thankfully, it is not yet the case that there are areas without a veterinary practitioner.