Ms Niamh Muldoon:

That is the position. To join our register and come from a programme accredited by the Veterinary Council of Ireland, which is a stringent and robust process of accreditation, you have to be fit and qualified to practice in a broad range. You cannot simply come out qualified to do companion animal or large animal. You have to be a generalist. Then you can choose to specialise in an interest in a particular species or area but you must be competent across all species.

On Veterinary Council of Ireland accreditation processes, we accredit programmes every five years. There is a detailed visit for a number of days where a panel of experts, usually containing an international expert, will go on site, review the curriculum, look at the facilities and at everything including finances, clinical placements, the expertise of the teachers and lecturers involved, supports available to students and around placements and the training given to those supervising clinical placements. It is a detailed process. That accreditation visit takes place every five years. Alongside that, any programme will be required to provide information to us every year. There was a reference earlier to drop-out or fail rates. That kind of information would be returnable to the council as the competent authority for accreditation on an annual basis.