DEAR EDITOR

Comghairdeas to ATU and SETU who are being awarded the new vet schools.

The next challenge in providing Irish farms with vets who want to work with farm animals is addressing the points system.

We had hundreds of very talented students from the 27 post primary schools in Co Donegal “seeing practice” down through the years. I know of only four of those schools where a student got the points for UCD’s vet school.

A student attending a small remote school as on Tory or Arranmore islands cannot be expected to compete in a points race biased in favour of fee paying grind schools.

Interviews work in British schools – Ireland is too small and prone to corruption for that to work here.

A suggestion that might be more equitable is that half the places are put in a separate points system reserved for students with an agricultural qualification.