Campaign group reacts to move by Limerick university to shelve vet school plans

CAMPAIGNERS pushing for a new veterinary school have called for the process to be paused after University of Limerick (UL) withdrew its plans.

One vet, Dr James Quinn, says the decision by UL not to proceed with its project for a school in Limerick is a “catastrophic” loss.

He said the school would have brought a capital spend of €50m and an annual payroll of €20m attached to a vet school of 500 students at UL.

In a letter to the college community, its acting president Prof Shane Kilcommins wrote the decision came about given the estimated cost of the proposal, the current pause on capital expenditure, and “the circumstances the university finds itself in”.

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The announcement was made the day before a new report by the Comptroller and Auditor General confirmed significant losses were incurred by the university’s acquisition of the former Dunnes Stores at Honan’s Quay in the city centre, and homes purchased in Rhebogue for student accommodation.

It’s reportedly led to a decision by college bosses to pause short and medium term investment while a new way forward is charted.

The Vet Working Group, who held meetings on campus as recently as last month says “conflating” the governance issues with the university’s ability to open a veterinary school has “serious consequences.”

“While recognising the serious governance issues relating to the lack of oversight in the spending of public money on property purchases in the Limerick area, UL’s academic record and research programmes are not in question,” the group said.

They believe this loss will “resonate for the next century”.

“It removes all possibility of a second hub being founded, for Ireland to excel in the vital research required,” the group said.
Instead of in Limerick, new third-level vet schools will be hosted on campuses at other colleges - the Atlantic Technological University in Donegal and Galway, plus South East Technological University in Kilkenny.

The Vet Working Group has 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 the government by the Vet Working Group in 2022 required a single, ranked large intake site such as UL to deliver a meaningful solution.”

Calling a pause, the group believes, will allow the Higher Education Authority to involve independent international veterinary educational experts in the decision making around where a new school can be located.

“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. In the same week that UL withdrew from the process, we hear that 83 Irish students will be starting their first year in Warsaw at the start of October,” they concluded.