Michael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ireland's national animal health strategy document of 2022 highlighted the role played by farm animal vets in safeguarding biosecurity, animal health and welfare. Veterinary practices across Tipperary and Ireland are experiencing enormous difficulties in recruiting and retaining vets for clinical practise. We have a crisis in the delivery of veterinary education and the retention of vets. The career dissatisfaction among practising vets shows that career expectations do not match the reality of veterinary practise.

We need to enhance the recruitment and education models for vets. There is obvious interest in the profession. UCD hosts the only veterinary college in Ireland. It is hopelessly short on placements. At present, only one in four registered vets are educated in UCD. Over 500 Irish students currently study veterinary in colleges across eastern Europe. Ireland urgently needs a second veterinary school specifically to address this recruitment and retention crisis. An inability to provide sufficient veterinary care into the future will negatively impact animal welfare and agribusiness. The agrifood sector is Ireland's oldest and largest indigenous exporting sector. In the mid-west region, the sector provides up to 14% of employment. Munster is effectively Ireland's animal food production heartland and the new veterinary school should be based in the University of Limerick.

International veterinary education is increasingly moving towards a hybrid model utilising practice clinical sites as well as the traditional on-campus teaching hospital. This model gives students a better balance of first opinion and specialist referral cases. The medical school at the University of Limerick, UL, has pioneered a similar model for general medical practitioners and the university has now proposed a similar model for veterinary education. UL has also established research programmes in human medicine, equine science, dairy processing, biomedical science and antimicrobial resistance, which would complement veterinary teaching and research.

The new veterinary school will need to work with veterinary practice networks and regional agricultural and equestrian educators. It will also need to work with specialist veterinary providers such as Fethard Equine Hospital in Tipperary. This is a world-class equine referral hospital and has the capability and willingness to host students on specialist rotations.

UL has always been an innovator in education and is uniquely positioned to address the issues in veterinary education with a different recruitment emphasis and an innovative model of delivery. Planning for national skill needs in the veterinary sector must be a priority and should be prioritised by this Government through the funding of a new world-class centre for veterinary education. Simply adding some additional places on the current programme at University College Dublin, UCD, would not address the problems in veterinary services. We need the new model of veterinary education that has been proposed and which can be delivered by the University of Limerick. I ask for Government support to establish this much-needed facility.

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