Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy shows admirable ability in terms of how he got from here to there.

I was pleased to visit Mountbellew in recent days and honoured to open the Aleen Cust library, named after the first female veterinary surgeon in Ireland and the UK, who was an incredible woman. I have been reading up on her in recent days. I was delighted to meet the team there and to see the good work going on in Mountbellew.

The factual position is the Government wants to expand the number of veterinary medicine places. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and I conducted an exercise in which we asked the higher education sector to put forward ideas of what more it could offer. A number of projects came forward that were deemed to be viable at the first stage. One was Mountbellew working with Atlantic Technological University in Donegal, one was University of Limerick and one was the South East Technological University’s plan for Kildalton college. All of them will be assessed by our two Departments and considered in the context of the NDP review. I hope to be in a position to provide an update towards the end of the year. I am very impressed by what is going on in Mountbellew and it was good to be there.

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