`A vet's job is susceptible to people developing illusions about what it might be like - it's quite glamorised on a lot of TV shows. But, after 25 years, for me, there is still enormous satisfaction in delivering a live calf. It has tremendous rewards, but there are days when it all goes horribly wrong and it seems like the worst job in the world," Professor Michael Monaghan, dean of Veterinary Medicine in UCD, says.
UCD is the only college in Ireland offering veterinary medicine and intake is limited and points are very high. With the sod about to be turned on the site of the new veterinary hospital on the Belfield campus, Monaghan says that by the spring of 2002 Dublin will have the most modern veterinary hospital in Europe, with 50 per cent more space than the present building in Shelbourne Road. But the new super-duper school - designed along the best of American and European lines - will not mean that there will be any increase in the current intake of around 80 students each year.
"The soundings we took at the time suggested that this was enough. You will meet vets who say it isn't enough. Part of the problem is the terms and conditions in Ireland: the graduate of today has very little interest in working in a two-person practice. There's a whole set of social issues in agriculture which make working in that field less attractive."
He agrees that there is a burgeoning in the small animal sector, but cautions: "You wouldn't want to get carried away with that. There is an upper limit with what we can do in the small animal area, but there's no doubt the public are taking more interest and are prepared to spend more money on their pets than before. We have been astounded at what people are prepared to pay for extensive orthopaedic work, for example."
Veterinary is one of the highest-points degree courses, but getting good examination results is not sufficient preparation for life as a student vet. "They really need to know what the life is like, and that animals don't always get sick between nine and five, Monday to Friday. Out of hours and hard work are integral parts of the job," he warns.
He advises students interested in veterinary: "Go to your local vet and get experience, perhaps more than one. Practices tend to be quite different." And during the last three of their five years of university, students have structured work experience for 22 weeks each year, in a variety of environments. They also spend a couple of weeks on a farm in their first year - not all students come from an agricultural background anymore. Apart from academic study, anatomy, surgery, animal husbandry and disease control are among the subjects students take.
Communications skills are just as important for vets as for doctors and this is something the Veterinary College is working on improving. A good kennel-side - or stable-side - manner is vitally important: the animal may be the patient but the owner is the client.
The final report of the Commission on the Points System showed that of the 65 students from the island of Ireland taken into UCD last year, 27 were first-time Leaving Cert students, 28 came in from other Leaving Cert sittings and 12 has A-levels (mainly from Northern Ireland). Some 10 places are reserved for non-EU nationals each year.
There are roughly 2,000 vets in practice in the Republic, most of them men, with just 300-400 women. But the gender imbalance is being corrected quickly. First-year intake now is in the region of 60 per cent female. "We're still behind the international trend, which would be 70-80 per cent," Michael Monaghan says. And are most women in small animal practices? - "We don't track them at all. There are women who are in large animal practices and are very successful. I suppose the majority would be interested in small animal or equine, but that is just anecdotal."
And while, anecdotally, vets are high earners, they can be coy about their actual incomes. The Higher Education Authority's graduate employment survey of 1998 graduates shows that two-thirds of vets in their first year at work would not reveal their salaries; 29 per cent were earning £19,000-plus; 2.9 per cent earning between £17,000 and £19,000.
The majority of veterinary graduates remain in Ireland long-term, although between 30 and 40 per cent might go abroad each year for further experience. There is less specialisation here than in some other countries, but discipline specialisations are beginning to show an increase here - there are more specialist orthopaedic surgeons, dermatologists and cardiologists than a few years ago.
