Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael)
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I want to raise an issue raised by a number of rural veterinary practitioners, particularly along the western seaboard. They believe they have been totally neglected by the Veterinary Council of Ireland, in particular through its refusal to intervene to ensure we get more vets who want to go into large animal practice from the veterinary school in UCD. As we have all said, we do not produce enough vets for cattle practice and there is a shortage of cattle vets in rural Ireland.

Another issue highlighted is that vets who qualify in other countries with lesser qualifications are being brought in. They have no experience of large animal practice and may not have experience of surgery, such as caesarean sections, on a cow. This is leading to complications in animal welfare. Will the witnesses respond to this and set out how the council is addressing this issue? We have corporate entities being created but the first step is to deal with the fact that there are not enough vets. What can and will be done to address the prevailing circumstances? Many of the vets who have complained spoke about severe emotional and physical distress and pressure in trying to keep up with the workload they have. We all know dealing with large animals is a very heavy type of job and if people are under pressure, they could easily get injured. It is far from being a desirable situation. The fact it is not being addressed means more Irish qualified vets are being driven away from large animal practice because those working in them have no life.