Legislation to stop corporates buying up veterinary practices begins its journey through the Dáil

More needs to be done to attract vets into practice in Ireland, a meeting of the Joint Committee on Agriculture heard this week. 

Corporates buying up veterinary practices in Ireland is about to end as new legislation gets set to make its way through the Dáil as part of a concerted effort by stakeholders to prevent the move.

A meeting of the joint committee on agriculture, which took place this week, agreed that the Veterinary Practice (Amendment) Bill 2021 will focus on the Veterinary Practice Act 2005 in order to make statutory provisions to prohibit ownership of veterinary practices by persons, other than a veterinary practitioner.

The meeting heard that in other jurisdictions where corporate ownership has become the norm, the service to rural customers has decreased while costs have increased.

The Act currently allows ownership of veterinary practices by persons, other than veterinary practitioners.

“This ensures that veterinary practices can only be in the ownership of licensed vets, thus preventing private corporations from having undue control of the sector,” said Jackie Cahill who has been highlighting the matter for a number of years.

“It is crucial that the Veterinary Council of Ireland be able to regulate practices and to do this, practices need to be owned by licenced veterinarians.

“A clear professional path for young veterinarians is needed so that they can see the financial prospects.

“The influx of private corporate practices in the sector may damage it.

“Looking at other countries where this has happened, it’s clear that it has damaged the viability of the profession, the sector, and the welfare of animals.”

Mr Cahill said the matter came to light in the first instance after concerns were raised by vets and the public over corporates showing interest in practices across the country and the impact on local services as a result of sales.

He also highlighted how the move has been increasing in recent years.

“There is growing concern among the public and vets over corporate ownership of veterinary practices in Ireland,” he continued.

“Over the last number of years, corporates have bought up private veterinary practices in this country.

“Prior to 2016, the Veterinary Council of Ireland’s view was that ownership of a practice had to be by a vet since then their system changed and because of the concerns raised a consultation was held with stakeholders to reexamine the interpretation of the Veterinary Practice Bill.”

“We saw in Derry recently where a veterinary practice became the first in Northern Ireland to fall into corporate ownership and the first casualty of that was the 24-hour service available to farmers,” Mr Cahill continued.

“For the last number of years, vets have provided exemplary service in rural Ireland.

“Urban dwellers have also had a very good service provided to them at a reasonable cost.

“We feel that corporate ownership will result in a lower level of service and a higher cost to the customer.

“There are difficulties too with attracting vets into large animal practices and under corporate ownership, this will become an even bigger problem.”

Gerry Neary, former president of Veterinary Council Ireland, told those gathered that there had been a “massive increase” in corporate ownership over the last few years.

He also gave a warning that changes to the legislation and the subsequent process of implementation through the Dáil would afford corporates further opportunity to buy up small practice here.

“There has been a massive increase in the number of practices being bought and I feel that the process of introducing this legislation will see a rush by corporates to buy up small private practices now,” Mr Neary explained.

“We are aware of a sale in West Cork — and in Galway at the moment a new player with massive resources has also moved into the field.”

Meanwhile, the meeting heard that most practices in Ireland are mixed and the intent of corporates is to “regionalise” the out-of-hours service, which members were told would not suit either the dairy or beef sector here.

The move would also lead to an animal welfare issue while the Veterinary Council of Ireland does not have the authority to regulate corporate ownership.

“There is a lot of pressure to attract vets into large animal mixed practice at the moment and that is due to a number of factors including more profit with small animals, more on-call work, and government roles due to Brexit,” Mr Neary added.

“We need to look now at getting better co-operation between practices and working with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to ensure a better on-call service.

“We also need to look at incentivising the out-of-hours service in rural areas.”

He added: “If you want to attract and retain vets you need to be able to pay them properly and provide them with a reasonable work-life balance.

“The corporates are cherry-picking practices at the moment and by the time we deal with the legislation, the best practices will have already been picked up.

“There is no career progression for vets in a set-up like this and that is the reality of the situation.

“We don’t want to see Ireland’s veterinary service going from local to regional.

“I would be all for the amalgamation of night services on a local town basis with a radius of 20km.”