Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I have been looking at the whole veterinary system. I thank Deputy Cahill and the team for bringing forward this Bill, of which we are fully supportive. I have concerns because I come from a peninsula in west Cork. We have got incredible service down the years that has perhaps spoiled us. Many of these veterinary surgeons have progressed in age, like us all, and I am worried. Have our guests looked at any model as part of this document to set up something like a SouthDoc system? We were badly spoiled because the veterinary surgeons have always given 100% down our way, to the point that it was often said the veterinary service was better than the doctor's service. It was nearly better if a person fell on the ground to ring the local vet because you might never get the doctor. The bottom line is that some of these surgeons are becoming elderly. I have been speaking to them and they are out day and night. One vet told me recently that he had a night off because he finished at 11.30 p.m. He was back working again the next morning. Is any kind of system being thought about, going forward, so that vets might have something like a doctor's system whereby one vet would be on duty in an area?

Unfortunately, when many younger vets are training, they are thinking about dogs and cats when there are an awful lot of cows that need calving and sick animals on farms that need treatment. The vets that we have had to date have served the community well but my worry is that if they are not minded, it will lead to burnout. Is there any system being considered that might change the situation?