Dr. Alan Wall:

We looked for a range of numbers. We hope that we have some idea of what the demand is. If the Government is interested in extra numbers, we will take a number from the Government. We deliberately asked the institutions to cost, in terms of capital - and also infrastructure, time, lectures and syllabus creation - what the cost would be of that provision. That is built in to the recommendations we have made. Those costs travel. As for the time to do it, the universities were well aware of the time they would need to do it.

I will say that while this is new in veterinary for a number of them, universities are very good in terms of new course provision. The State has been lucky, in fact, that third level has managed to expand so rapidly to produce good graduates over time. This is something they do.

What we are good at, as the HEA, is being able to assess what their applications look like. What we cannot do is make a decision about whether it suits a veterinary council or not, and that is why we involve the veterinary council in that part of it.

In terms of the Deputy's question around infrastructure, numbers, etc., we have gone as wide as we can because we are conscious that there is no point in pretending that if they do not get the infrastructure they can get through a veterinary council process. That is where the answer lies. The number in the end will lie outside of us. We hope to talk to Government and to the two Departments more directly over the next couple of weeks but it will be a matter for them to decide to things.