The Further Education and Training conference ‘FET – the First Learner Choice’ took place on Wednesday 2 April at the Knightsbrook Hotel and Golf Club, Trim, Co Meath.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal at the event, Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless said: “For years, Irish students have travelled to Poland to take veterinary courses because University College Dublin (UCD) was the only course in the country, with 90 places, that was oversubscribed every year.

"I am told there was some institutional reluctance to open other courses or to expand. My department rightly said there is a strong identified need and let's expand the options.

“We now have Atlantic Technological University (ATU) and South East Technological University (SETU) offering veterinary courses for 2026 and perhaps more will follow," he said.

Along with this, Minister Lawless said we need to look at the graduate entry routes to veterinary and medicine.

“For those highly sought-after points courses, having other options of access, whether it’s graduate entry, putting on more course places or encouraging other colleges to provide the same courses. A bit of competition is always healthy," he added.

Capacity

Speaking on veterinary course capacity, Minister Lawless said he believes it can be increased in colleges in the future.

“I think we could do more, I think there are more than 170 people in the country who want to do veterinary every year; there is probably double that.

“And people who have the aptitude and ability to make really good vets. I think on a number of those courses we could still increase capacity,” he said.