NEWS this week that two new veterinary schools are to open in the north-west and south-east has generated a mixed reaction from the veterinary community.

The news was announced at the National Ploughing Championships by the Taoiseach Simon Harris and Ministers Patrick O’Donovan and Charlie McConalogue.

The new schools will be located at the South East Technological University campus in Kilkenny, and at Atlantic Technological University campuses in Donegal and Galway.

The Taoiseach said that, from listening to farmers and vets across rural Ireland, he believed there is a “real need” for a regional balance in the provision of veterinary services.

“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”.

The move is expected to result in an additional 80 veterinary medicine graduates per year.

Equine veterinary surgeon Joe Collins, a regular contributor to The Irish Field, said: “Currently many young, enthusiastic, potential future-vets cannot secure places at UCD through the CAO system. Additional vet student places are very welcome if they provide sound options at home for some who otherwise have to go abroad to train.

“From an equine industry perspective, we need new vets motivated to enter equine veterinary practice and thereafter finding that they can enjoy a long, fulfilling career here at home.”

Yesterday a veterinary group issued a statement to say the move is “not good news for the veterinary profession and its clients”.

The Veterinary Working Group for Reform in Veterinary Education in Ireland said: “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.”

According to the group, the opportunity to establish a large veterinary college in the University of Limerick has now been lost.

“The loss of the potential that a new vet school in UL can deliver has serious consequences for the farming and urban communities of the whole island we are privileged to call home,” the statement said. “In the same week that UL have withdrawn from the process, we hear that 83 Irish students will be starting in first year in Warsaw University Veterinary Medicine School at the start of this coming October.”

It is anticipated students will be able to access the courses from next year. The Cabinet will be informed of the allocation of €50m in capital expenditure to advance these projects when it meets.

UCD has been the only provider for veterinary medicine in Ireland since the 1970s.

The Veterinary Council of Ireland welcomed the Government’s announcement and said that it will apply accreditation standards to any new veterinary medicine courses.

The Council said that this accreditation enables professional recognition in Ireland which then further affords access to registration in the UK, Europe and Australia and New Zealand.

The next phase of planning will begin between the HEA (Higher Education Authority) and the HEI (Higher Education Institutions), and the Ministers and their Departments will continue to work closely to help progress and support the delivery of the new schools.