There are just under 1,500 herds in Galway whose nearest vet is over the age of 60, an assessment carried out by the Department of Agriculture found.

Cork is next followed closely by Kerry, Mayo, Sligo and Westmeath.

This represents almost 1,500 herds in Galway, over 750 herds in Cork and over 500 herds in the other four counties.

This evaluation of large animal veterinary services in Ireland carried out in 2020 is the most up-to-date insight into issues such as shortages, gender balances and age profiles of vets carried out by the Department of Agriculture.

The assessment also found that in a number of counties in the west and south of Ireland (notably Donegal, Galway, Kerry and Mayo), over 10% of herds are located over 20km from their nearest practice.

Mayo has the largest number of herds (482) located 20km or more from their nearest vet practice.

There are over 1,000 herds in Donegal located more than 20km from their nearest vet, while this figure is 829 in Kerry and 614 in Galway.

However overall, 95% of the 106,095 cattle and sheep herds included in the analysis are located within 20km of their closest large animal or mixed practice.

There are more than twice as many male vets in large or mixed practice (462) than female (212).

The findings around age and gender relate to 674 vets working in 249 large and mixed practices across the country.

The statistics, however, around female retention in the industry are stark.

Between the ages of 30 and 49, more than 50% of female vets leave large animal practices.

There were just 12 out of the 212 female vets in large animal practices over the age of 50.