Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Young people are doing their leaving certificate right now and many of them will want to vets. In September, many of them will pack their bags and head to other countries in the European Union to become vets. There is always a degree of this but it is completely disproportionate in Ireland. A total of 65% of new entrants to the Veterinary Council register last year were educated abroad. We need to do something as quickly as we can while being truthful and realistic.

The HEA asked the sector what it could do. It put in place an expert panel that included members of the Veterinary Council and the chief veterinary officer. Four projects were deemed as viable with the potential to be able to deliver veterinary education. These are the expansion of UCD, the South East Technological University with, as the Cathaoirleach said, the Kildalton College campus, the University of Limerick and an Atlantic Technological University proposal for a dual campus location between Letterkenny and Mountbellew, which we discussed earlier with Senator Dolan. These are the four proposals that have been deemed as viable to proceed to the next phase of assessment, which is a preliminary business case. The national development plan, which funds capital, will be reviewed in October. I want to be in a position to have proposals, ideas and options with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine for this review process.

In the process we have gone through, the education system stated that in theory there could be 230 additional places. A key issue will be to work with colleagues in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to establish the number we believe we need. The system says it can provide 230, but what number do we and our colleagues in the Department believe we should try to put in place in the coming years? By the time of the national development plan review, I hope to be in a position, along with the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, to try to take some of these proposals forward. It is very encouraging that good solid projects have come forward and been assessed as having real potential. We will work to evaluate them further and build up the cases.