Ms Niamh Muldoon:

I echo the comments. This is a welcome discussion. It is a great opportunity for us as a nation to potentially have more access to veterinary medicine and expanded capacity.

In terms of the routes or terms of access, that is not for the veterinary council. We look at the standards once a programme is up and running. We have conversations with our counterparts all around the world. We know what other countries are looking at and doing, and the differing approaches in terms of diversity and positive discrimination in some cases. We would be happy to share any of our thoughts, input and experience with the Higher Education Authority, HEA, or any of the potential programme providers. We will collaborate as best we can to make sure that there is wide and appropriate access as needed.

My colleague dealt with the potential expansion of UCD. That is an accredited programme by the veterinary council and carries all the benefits of that accreditation internationally.

In relation to some of the European programmes, as far as I am aware, there are minimum requirements around mathematics and some of the sciences and it is an interview process, but I do not believe there is a strict points requirement from all of the European programmes being delivered in English in veterinary medicine.