Michael Fitzmaurice on delay to new veterinary college intake

First of all, Minister, I want to wish you well. I did not formally do it until Minister Harkin. I have lobbied for a number of years about veterinary colleges, and I welcome the announcement where, basically, Leicester Kinney and Mountbella were going to be one of them and Carroll Kinney and Washford, I think, were going to be the other. Minister, my understanding was that this was going to kick off in September 25. I am hearing that it could be September 26. Could you clarify what is going to happen and why it has been delayed? Thank you. Minister. I am the Minister of Commerce, Minister Harkin, and I am the work of the Forest Service Department and the Forest Service team and veteran people sector. In terms of your question, I am very interested in this area myself. I have been making queries on it since I assumed the post. As you are probably aware, the HEA ran an Expressions of Interest process in October 2022 to assess the capacity for expansion in key disciplines including veterinary medicine. Following the completion of their report and following consultation with the Department of Agriculture at the time, my department directed the HEA to provide recommendations for the expansion of the veterinary medicine education having regard to competition, balanced regional provision and diversity of approaches in delivery. The HEA recommended that the proposed programs in ATU, Atlanta Technological University, and South East Technological University be advanced. It is expected that these programs will have an annual intake of 80 additional veterinary students, which nearly doubles the current intake. My predecessor, and indeed Minister McConlogue, who was then Minister of Agriculture, at the time accepted that recommendation and jointly announced the planned expansion at the Planned Championships last year. Until that, UCD was the sole provider of veterinary education in the state. The delivery of a veterinary medicine program is complex. It involves specialist academic staff, appropriate facilities, laboratory equipment, and curriculum development. Accreditation is key as well, because we can train vets, but they need to have their accreditation to go out into the field, and that program validation is important as well. The original estimated timeline for the ATU, Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine program, was estimated by the University to be September 2025. They recently released a statement that additional time would be necessary for them to validate the program and complete infrastructural development before the program could be open for application. Now, I have met a deputy. I have visited ATU. I have discussed this with their executive. I have also known your questions on ATU, but I have also visited SETU and had the same conversation with their executive, because I am very keen that the veterinary program occurs quickly. We need it. There are a significant number of students studying in Poland and outside the state, and the veterinary college in UCD, I think, it is 90 students. That is inadequate. We need these additional 80 places, but I am told by the colleges that it won't be happening this year, and they are saying it will be September 2026. Thank you, Minister. So, just to advise the Deputy of that. Mr. Minister, there are probably 200 youngsters out of the country this minute, because UCD isn't fit to take the numbers that are conferred. I do understand that there is a lot of setting up to it, but the problem is, and as you know in your position, that three months or four months of a delay doesn't work in veterinary or in college, because it is either going to be September 25 or September 26. What I would ask you to do, and I know you are only new in at your portfolio, I would ask you for the sake, and the last Cancórla is from that area in East Caerloch and Kinney, I think, where they are looking to make sure that there is an area down there. But in the west of Ireland, it would be a great development to have a veterinary college in our area. It will help Mount Belia, because that was an agricultural college. It will also help the colleges like Leather Kinney and places like that, where they will be doing the study part of it, and I would ask you to put a focus on it, to deliver that for those two areas, because it is crucial. I completely agree with you, Deputy. I actually completely agree, and I think that, and you know, I don't, as with my own constituency, in neither category, but it is an agricultural constituency, it is an equine constituency, Home of the Horses, County Coderre, and I know many, many people who were interested in these courses, who were telling me about the ongoing demand, the need for placements, the need for vets, and large animal vets. And the small practice has its own area, of course, but we need people out on the farm, out in large animal practice. And I think these programmes, with Kildalton in SCTU and Matt Bellew in ATU, Minister Harkin is a very strong supporter of the programme as well, and we met on it and discussed it, including on-site in ATU, when we both visited there recently. So I can just give you my commitment, Deputy, that this will be followed through. The colleges are now saying September 26th, I have no reason to doubt that. I actually think it's probably helpful that they have been candid, rather than just being on a wheel for this September, if they know at this stage they are not going to make that, and they are actually being realistic about their target date, but I will hold them to it. Thank you, Minister. Thanks, Minister, for your reply, and I will be following it up with you as the months go by.