Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and thank Deputy Carthy for tabling the question, and I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh, who has led out on this and had a priority question earlier. I come from a rural county but it is also a Border county. The two are very important when we look at this issue because there is a question of geography and access to veterinary services. We know in the evaluation that was carried out that it is the counties down the west coast - Donegal, Galway, Mayo and Kerry - that have the highest concentration of herd numbers without a veterinary practice within 20 km. It is encouraging that a number of universities have shown interest in the expression of interest that was submitted last year, but particularly the Atlantic Technological University, ATU, is one which covers the area where there is an issue with access to veterinary practice. The accreditation and recognition on an all-island basis is crucial because vets operate in one field one minute and in the next minute, they are across the Border. It needs to be internationally recognised. It needs to be all-island recognised and therefore the accreditation has to be accepted by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons as well. We need to get that right at the very start.

See this speech in context