Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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We need to be careful here and I know the Minister of State has had much the same conversations as I have. We need to get this right and we need to get the right expertise and the people who have that along with current expertise in the field of veterinary. If we do not get this right we could end up in a situation that none of us want to be in. Even if it was a case where we have to take a bit longer, we need to ensure the capacity is there to deliver exactly what we want; not what we want just now but what we want to future-proof it for 20 years' time. It is crucial we do that. I want to speak to the Minister, Deputy Harris, separately about this as well. If we do not do this, there will be repercussions. I was delighted to see the expressions of interest because so many people, even from my own community, are forced to go abroad to train to be vets. We need the whole western seaboard service so that people can go to college to train to be a vet as near as possible to home but particularly, which we discussed previously, to work with large animals and all that. If we do not get this framework right in how we set it up and the capacity to set it up and make the right investment at the beginning, it will cost us an awful lot more, not only in monetary terms but otherwise, as we go along with this. I ask the Minister of State that we, as Opposition members, would have transparency and accountability around this and that we would work together to get it right to make sure it is done. We will only have one change at this. I cannot push home the point enough that we do not have any veterinary school in the north of the island and we need to be able to cater for the communities there as well. It is a great opportunity for North-South collaboration too.