Mr. Donal Lynch:

Mr. Neary has referred to the place vets have as part of the community. It has worked well for a long period. We all get up during the night. Mr. Geraghty has referred to the number of hours we work, as well as the percentage of our time taken up by TB testing. We work 24 hours a day and if somebody is stuck, we will help him or her. We welcome the meat factory work that has opened up recently and want to see young vets coming on board and being part of the fabric of the community, as they have been in the past. Deputy Cahill referred to what might happen to somatic cell counts. We cannot just take antibiotics away; we have to have an integrated management system, where a small group of vets work with a farmer and know what is happening on a farm. They know what the farmer is like and what his or her family situation is. These management structures make it possible to reduce the amounts of antibiotics being used on a farm by using intramammary injections instead. It does not happen as a single event. There is a complete picture which involves managing a cow and a farm to reduce the amounts of antibiotics used.