TWO new veterinary schools are to be developed at Irish universities, but the news has not been met with universal approval.

The new “state-of-the-art” facilities will be located at South East Technological University (SETU) in Kilkenny, and Atlantic Technological University (ATU) in its Donegal and Galway campuses.

Taoiseach Simon Harris said the schools will help address demand for veterinary professionals and support the agriculture sector.

“There are often shortages of vets in rural and regional Ireland, particularly for large animals, and the location of new vet colleges outside Dublin may help assist with that and support our rural communities,” he said.

“These new veterinary colleges will provide the skilled professionals we need to support our rural communities and address the evolving challenges facing agriculture, from animal health to food safety and climate change.”

Further Education Minister Patrick O’Donovan and Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue made the announcement at the National Ploughing Championships in Ratheniska, Co Laois.

“Too often many of our brightest students with aspirations of becoming veterinarians have had to look overseas to pursue their studies,” Mr O’Donovan said.

“With the formation of these new schools, we are offering more students who wish to study veterinary medicine the opportunity to learn and thrive in their academic careers here at home, to pursue their studies within an Irish context, and contribute directly to our agricultural, agri-food, and public health sectors.”

Concerns

The Irish Equine Veterinary Association (IEVA) have some concerns following the announcement. A statement on Friday said: “IEVA are pleased that the current government has acknowledged the issues of recruitment in veterinary practice and the need for increased university places to study veterinary medicine. However, IEVA shares concerns raised by other groups, including funding of duplicated resources for small numbers of students, attracting suitable teaching staff to lower ranking colleges and the provision of adequate clinical teaching, so that we can continue to have world-class veterinary graduates.”

The Veterinary Working Group for Reform in Veterinary Education in Ireland has also expressed concern about the move.

In a public statement, it said: “The announcement is not good news for the veterinary profession and its clients. The prospect of two small scale, low-ranking vet schools in Ireland and the duplication of staff, facilities and a curriculum represents a major overspend of scarce resources. The graduate supply problem first identified to government by the Veterinary Working Group in 2022 requires a single, ranked, large intake site such as University of Limerick to deliver a meaningful solution.

“The Veterinary Working Group (VWG) are disappointed with the news of the forced withdrawal of the University of Limerick (UL) from the process to found Ireland’s second vet school and the lost opportunity that represents, at this pivotal moment for veterinary services. While recognising the serious governance issues relating to the lack of oversight in the spending of public money on property purchases in the Limerick area, UL’s academic record and research programmes are not in question.

“The VWG identified UL as the best location and the ideal candidate for a new vet school. UL has a highly regarded Medical School, teaching an innovative medical course. The VWG believe this model is ideal to address many of the problems which veterinary, like medicine, seeks to solve, with similar recruitment and retention issues in both professional disciplines, especially in rural practice. Over 60% of human diseases originate from animal sources and veterinary services play a critical role as public health protectors.

“The VWG believe that the locating of a new vet school at an unranked site will expose the public purse to high risk.”