Mr. Ian Fleming:

It is not really for us to say. It is a major issue. The Veterinary Council is dealing with it and that is where we stand. We know there are strong feelings on this and it is a matter of getting the right result for the community at large in the public interest.

Over the past 18 months, we looked at education systems in veterinary education around the world. We had contact with universities in Wellington in New Zealand, Melbourne in Australia, New Jersey in the US and Utrecht in the Netherlands along with Denmark, Norway and Great Britain. What we see is that at the end of the day, they all have a similar story to tell but there is a revolution in the process in education in the veterinary world. We may be lagging behind slightly the medical world, which is also in that evolutionary stage, where we need people who will stay in practice. We have two problems, one of which is recruitment while the other is retention. We know the figures coming out of UCD from a scope last year show that on average, graduates will stay in practice for seven years, which is very poor value for money given the cost of producing them. We see this as a significant issue here in terms of public funding and we want the best result for the public, the profession and the community, particularly in the farming world because we are aware of the pressures it is under.