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

In other jurisdictions where corporate ownership has become the norm, the service to rural customers has decreased while costs have increased.

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.