Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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391. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the progress towards enabling a person (details supplied) to obtain employment, temporary or permanent which might be beneficial towards their eligibility to practice whole-time in Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53886/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Veterinary Council of Ireland is the independent statutory body charged with regulating the veterinary professions, pursuant to the Veterinary Practice Act 2005 as amended. This includes management of the Register of Veterinary Practitioners and Veterinary Nurses in Ireland.

The Veterinary Council, as the regulatory body to the veterinary professions, acting in the public interest, cannot assist any person in obtaining employment, temporary or permanent.

The Veterinary Council oversees processes to enable persons suitably qualified and competent to access the register of Veterinary Practitioners and Veterinary Nurses in Ireland. To practise veterinary medicine or veterinary nursing in Ireland, an individual must be registered with the Veterinary Council.

The process for any persons qualified as veterinary practitioner, from a programme of education not accredited by the Veterinary Council or outside of the European Union, not eligible for automatic recognition under the EU Directive 2005/36, includes an assessment of their qualification pursuant to section 44 of the Veterinary Practice Act 2005. This assessment allows the Veterinary Council to be satisfied that the standard that applies to the programme of education and training undertaken by any applicant, examinations passes and qualifications obtained is not of a standard that is lower than the standard of such programmes, accredited by the Veterinary Council. The Veterinary Council may also require any person to whom subsection 2 of section 44 of the Veterinary Practice Act 2005 (qualified outside of the EU) to sit and pass an examination set by or on behalf of the Veterinary Council.

This examination is held annually in two parts by the School of Veterinary Medicine in University College Dublin on behalf of the Veterinary Council. The first part of this examination convened in October 2021, involved a multi-choice questionnaire. The second part of this examination will be convened in Spring 2022, which will involve an objective structured clinical examination.

Any individual who successfully passes the first part of the examination will be invited to attend the second part of the examination. Any individual who successfully passes the first and second part of the examination is eligible to join the Register of Veterinary Practitioners, subject to VCI registration requirements.