Mr. Ian Fleming:

Out-of-hours services are a big issue because it is a regulation issue. A veterinary practice cannot be run without providing out-of-hours services or a practice that is not providing them must direct its clients to where they can get that service within a reasonable distance. It is part of the Veterinary Council licensing system. Out-of-hours work is in the legislation. This is a big issue, especially, as I said, in rural areas. A number of facilities are available in urban areas where a night service is available and practitioners who are doing the day job are not involved. However, they are not available in rural communities or farming practices. Therefore when a farmer has a cow calving in the middle of the night, the vet is the out-of-hours fella, but he or she is working the following day as well. We have plenty of females who are well able to manage in that area. Those are the issues. At the moment, there is a risk that if we do not get a correction quickly services will be disrupted, especially in remote rural areas. That is an alarm bell. We need action and we need it quickly. Sitting on this will not serve anyone well. We know there is a lot of work to be done to change the surrounds, but the first part is to get a new veterinary school started as quickly as possible that is based on merit and on the scope of the college to produce enough graduates to make the course sustainable. Those are the immediate issues. That is probably the kernel of what we are here to talk about today.