Mr. Jimmy Quinn:

It is probably a mixture of factors because we have all dealt with students who trained abroad. First, those colleges are quite international so they meet students from the UK, France, Norway and Germany. Some of them decide to move elsewhere and do other things. They may have gone there initially with the dream of coming back to Ireland to be a vet but life changes and their paths change. That probably accounts for the 50% who disappear and leave Ireland, get educated abroad but do not actually come back to work here. People may change. They may go out there with one particular aspiration of the type of career or animal they want to work with and that may change. Some come back, some do not. I myself worked for eight years outside of the country. I worked in general practice in Scotland in the islands, I worked in the UK and in New Zealand but I came back eventually. One acquires extra skills.