Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 10 May 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

New School of Veterinary Medicine: Discussion

Photo of Jackie CahillJackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Before we begin, I remind members, witnesses and people in the Public Gallery to turn off their mobile phones, please. All those present in the committee room are asked to exercise personal responsibility to protect themselves and others from the risk of contracting Covid-19.

I bring to the attention of those present that witnesses giving evidence from within the parliamentary precincts are protected by absolute privilege in respect of the evidence they give to a committee. This means witnesses have a full defence in any defamation action arising out of anything said at a committee meeting. However, they are expected not to abuse this privilege and may be directed by the Chair to cease giving evidence on an issue. Witnesses should follow the direction of the Chair in this regard. They are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that, within reason, no adverse commentary should be made against an identifiable third person or entity. Witnesses giving evidence from a location outside the parliamentary precincts are asked to note they may not benefit from the same level of immunity from legal proceedings as do witnesses giving evidence within the parliamentary precincts and may consider it appropriate to take legal advice on this matter. Privilege against defamation does not apply to publications by witnesses outside the proceedings held by the committee of any matters arising from the proceedings.

Members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against either a person outside the Houses or an official either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable. Parliamentary privilege is considered to apply to utterances of members participating online from within the parliamentary precincts. There can be no assurance regarding participation online from outside the parliamentary precincts and members should be mindful of this when they are contributing.

The purpose of today's meeting is to undertake an examination of a new school of veterinary medicine in Ireland.

In the first session, the committee will hear from the following representatives from the Veterinary Council of Ireland, Professor Vivienne Duggan, VCI president, and Ms Niamh Muldoon, registrar and CEO; and from the following representatives from the Higher Education Authority, Dr. Alan Wall, chief executive officer, Mr. Tim Conlon, head of policy and strategic planning, and Dr. Victoria Brownlee, senior manager, system development and performance management. The two groups have indicated that they would prefer to go straight into a question-and-answer session, as their opening statements have already been distributed. We will, therefore, do that. The witnesses are all very welcome here. There are many students who want to do veterinary medicine and they are going overseas to do it. UCD has its quota. We are finding it very hard to meet the number of veterinarians required in this country. This discussion is, therefore, extremely timely and worthwhile. There has been a lot of media attention on the issue in the last while. We would like to see where the Veterinary Council of Ireland and the Higher Education Authority see the debate on establishing a second school of veterinary medicine in the country.

I call Senator Paul Daly.

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