Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I am very happy to. I am relying on my memory on this because I do not have it in a brief in front of me but I have quite a bit of familiarity with it because I had a very good meeting recently with the delegation of veterinary education leaders from the mid-west. They came to see me in Leinster House. There is at least two higher education institutions that I am aware of and I am sure Deputy Conway-Walsh is aware of that are currently looking at engaging with the HEA on preparing for en expression of interest for target programmes including veterinary. Again, as I implied in an earlier answer, the line department here is the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in terms of dealing with vets. We want to work with it.

I believe the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, has been engaging with this group. I would like to meet this group as mediators with the Minister, Deputy McConalogue.

This is a personal view. I am frustrated that, as the Deputy rightly says, every year so many young people leave to go to, I believe, Poland and Hungary to study to become vets. There clearly is a demand from young Irish students to study veterinary medicine. I have also heard from a number of colleagues in the House and from vets themselves that there is a particular shortage of vets for larger animals in rural areas. We are engaging on this. There will be a process involving expressions of interest through the HEA, which is obviously the appropriate channel. They are autonomous institutions and need to express interest. There is considerable activity in this space involving two HEIs in particular.