Mr. Jimmy Quinn:

Other countries have looked at different ways of solving this. Definitely if we modify the student selection process, modify how they are educated and how they are placed in practices during their education, the outcome is modified. The French have a system at the moment because despite being a vast country with huge numbers of cattle, if one looks at a map of France at the moment the cattle rearing areas are the areas they cannot get vets. Dairy production and so on up around Brittany and the north of France, the Massif Central in the middle where the Charolais, the Limousins and Salers breeds come from are struggling to get vets. The French Government has realised it has a problem and has told the veterinary schools to change their student selection and that the government will fund students who give a commitment to going back into rural practice and will encourage placements from those students while they are in training with rural practitioners to encourage the likelihood of them going back into rural practice. Again, a lot of that bears a commonality with the graduate entry medical programme in UL. UL has great experience in those types of programmes to produce graduates who are more likely to go back and work in rural environments.