Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber. I greatly appreciate that he is here but two Departments would be involved in the establishment of a new veterinary school, neither of which is the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. I appreciate the Minister of State has taken the time to be here and do not wish to be in any way churlish but Deputies put forward Topical Issue matters on the basis that relevant line Ministers will reply. That said, I am sure the Minister of State will convey the contents of my contribution to a Minister.

The Minister of State represents a rural constituency, so I am sure he will be aware of the shortage of vets in large animal practice. Likewise, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, the Ministers of State at that Department, Deputy Hayden and Senator Hackett, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, and the Minister of State at that Department, Deputy Collins, are aware of it too. The Minister of State, Deputy Collins, certainly represents a rural constituency and Wicklow, the Minister's constituency, is arguably a rural constituency. As vets in large animal practice retire, we have a shortage of vets to replace them. This is a huge problem, especially given agriculture is still the biggest industry we have in rural Ireland. Vets in large animal practice are of course not confined to agriculture as there is also the equine industry, to which such vets are also essential.

There are a number of students who want to study veterinary medicine. I understand 581 students had it as their first choice in the CAO in 2022 but there are only 85 places on the island, let alone in this State. These are all at the veterinary college in UCD, which is obviously excellent and nobody is casting any doubt or aspersions on that. It is about the sheer lack of numbers. Of those students, a very large proportion of the graduates tend to go, for whatever reason, into research, working in veterinary hospitals and into small animal practices. That is their right and nobody is suggesting otherwise but that leaves a shortage of vets in large animal practice.

UCD is taking in 85 students, but there are more Irish students than that number studying veterinary medicine in Hungary and Poland combined, with 40 and 70, respectively.

For these reasons, it is clear we need to establish a new veterinary college. I believe the steps are under way. When the University of Limerick founded its graduate medical school, it not alone added a new school of medicine but also a new way of teaching. Instead of students getting their practical experience in hospitals, which they had previously done in the existing medical schools, they also got practical experience in general practices around the country. As a result, this meant general practice was perhaps more open to them. The option was more in their mind and they were more willing to consider it than they might have been had they never had any experience in a general practice. The experience of doing this is something that should be looked at with respect to this new veterinary school. I refer to having a veterinary school where students do not just do their practical experience in a veterinary hospital, like the one in Belfield, but do it in large-animal practices the length and breadth of not just this State but this island.

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