Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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57. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he can provide further detail on the veterinary degree to be provided by the South East Technological University. [38014/24]

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Will the Minister provide further details on the veterinary degree to be provided by the South East Technological University? It is a really good news story.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Murnane O'Connor. First, I congratulate the Deputy and all in the south east on the very successful outcome, which is wonderful news for the region. I know it is something for which she worked very hard with her colleagues and on which we had a lot of engagement. The news has been wonderfully well received in the north west as it has in the south east. It is exciting news indeed. It is a real vote of confidence in our agriculture sector in the south east, in the region and also in the technological university sector. It is a wonderful achievement for SETU with Kildalton College, which has a wonderful reputation as a Teagasc college, now very much at the centre of veterinary medicine education into the future.

I was really delighted to hear the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan, make the announcement, which the Deputy attended at the National Ploughing Championships, that this course will be provided will be at that location. There will be 80 new veterinary places annually: 40 for the South East Technological University at Kildalton College and 40 for the Atlantic Technological University at the Letterkenny and Mountbellew campuses. That will mean a full capacity. It is a five-year course. At full capacity there will be 200 veterinary students studying at SETU and at Kildalton College. This has been made possible through a joint capital investment of €25 million from my Department and €25 million from the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. It is unusual for capital funding to be provided outside the Department of further education. Normally, it is entirely funded through that Department but given the absolute importance of needing new veterinary places in the country, I agreed to partner on the capital funding and provide €25 million to be able to deliver these new veterinary places. Until now, we have only ever had one veterinary college on the island, which is the top-class college in UCD with 90 places a year. Now we are adding to those places with a further 80 places a year between the locations I mentioned. I hope going forward it means the many of the young people who have a great passion for pursuing a veterinary career, approximately 100 of whom have been going abroad, particularly to eastern Europe, to pursue their education annually, will now be able to pursue that education not only in our country but in their home regions, particularly in the south east.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister. As he said, I was at the ploughing and was very honoured to be there when he announced this with our higher education Minister. Giving €25 million from his own budget was so important. Everybody was working together. I know Kildalton College well. My son studied horticulture there for over three years but he is now a garda. Anyway, he loved that too. It is a fabulous college. We are so lucky in the south east that it is now a university. I congratulate the Minister and everyone involved through Teagasc and SETU. They have put in all the work into this and it is game-changer for the south east. It is great to know we will have 40 places every year for veterinary students going through our area in the south east, which is excellent. If we look at the figures, we will see that over 20% of the State's agricultural output is in the south east. We have over 12,000 farms between beef, dairy, sheep and bloodstock.

That shows what a big farming sector the south east has. It is welcome and is a good news story.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Pending the registrations and preparations being put in place, the plan is that we will see the first intake of students in the south east, at Waterford and Kildalton, in September 2026, just under two years away. The recruitment and the scaling up of the accommodation and infrastructure that need to be put in place will happen between now and then, although that is not far away. From that point onwards, we will see it grow every year to a maximum of 200 students.

It is the culmination of a very long and thorough process. I congratulate all at SETU and Kildalton for the strength of their application. As Minister, I was very clear that we needed to make sure there was regional balance but also that there was a focus on large animals. There is a particular challenge with regard to underpinning and supporting the farming sector going forward and we need large-animal vets who can support farmers. Both the south-east and north-west applications had a particular focus on that and it will be very important for the farming sector going forward.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I was at the ploughing championships when the announcement was made and a large number of families and students came to ask about this course. As the Minister said, many students left the country to study veterinary but now that we have this course, there are extra places in the south east, and I am only focusing on the south east. Information should be given to students when they are doing their leaving certificate as to when they can apply and so on. It is important that students who are interested in veterinary know this is happening, although I know many do. We need to give out the information through the colleges. This is a great news story and I thank everyone involved. It is another game changer for the south east.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I have no doubt that South East Technological University and Kildalton will make all of the information known and it will become part of the course options available to young students as they complete their leaving certificate. It is an exciting opportunity and it is great to see it happening in a local area. It is prohibitively expensive for young people to go abroad to pursue their passion. We are now almost doubling the annual intake in veterinary, which is a great step forward.

I thank Deputy Murnane O'Connor for her consistent backing of this. I know there was strong support from all of our Government colleagues. In the south east in particular, there was a cross-party and cross-county group chaired by Senator Malcolm Byrne, which Deputy Murnane O'Connor was a key driver of. It was a very strong effort. I am delighted to see it come to the point where a date has been set for the intake. It is an exciting and successful outcome for the south east, as well as the north west.