The number of Irish students who have to go abroad to study veterinary must be reduced, Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris has said.

He said his department must ensure there are enough places on veterinary courses to meet demand in the country.

The minister said he could never understand how there was a scenario in this country where every year all these students found themselves having to go abroad.

However, the number of vets and the number of veterinary places needed in Ireland are matters for the Department of Agriculture, he said, in response to a parliamentary question on Tuesday, 14 February.

Minister Harris said that once the numbers are deciphered, his department will then try to provide the places.

“It is the same in health and any other area. Nobody wants me to decide what is appropriate for veterinary medicine. We have the chief vet, the Veterinary Council of Ireland and the Higher Education Authority (HEA). My approach is to let them do their thing,” Harris said.

There is a real sense that at least one new veterinary school would be established

A report detailing exactly what is needed is due to come to Minister Harris in March and the matter will then be back in his space, he said.

“The exercise between now and March is to ascertain what is possible, what the institutions are telling us and what the expert panel believes is best from what it has heard around the country,” he said.

New school

There is a real sense that at least one new veterinary school would be established, Minister Harris said, adding that the location of the new school would be very important.

Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty stressed the issue of access to veterinary services to the minister.

He argued that Atlantic Technological University (ATU) in Sligo is a university which covers the area with the biggest issue in relation to access to veterinary practice.

“I come from a rural county but it is also a border county. The two are very important when we look at this issue because there is a question of geography and access to veterinary services.

“We know in the evaluation that was carried out that it is the counties down the west coast - Donegal, Galway, Mayo and Kerry - that have the highest concentration of herd numbers without a veterinary practice within 20 km,” he said.