New vet college to be located at SETU

There's huge news for the south east region today with the announcement by the Higher Education Authority that SETU has been chosen as the home of a new school of veterinary medicine, to be located at Kildalton Agricultural College in Piltown. 

The withdrawal by University of Limerick last week of its expression of interest for the new vet school left three universities remaining on the HEA’s shortlist: Atlantic Technological University (ATU), University College Dublin (UCD), and the South East Technological University (SETU) with a proposal developed with Kildalton Agricultural College, and I'm delighted to have it confirmed by my collegaue, Charlie McConalogue today that SETU has made the cut. 

The decision to establish a new veterinary college at the South East Technological University and locate it at Kildalton is absolutely the right choice. I visited Kildalton last month and got to see first-hand the facilities, accommodation and expertise that make it perfectly suited to providing veterinary education in the region, with a world-class proposal developed by SETU. UCD is currently the only college providing veterinary training in Ireland and the government had committed to establishing a much-needed second veterinary college.

I have long advocated for this new facility to be established at SETU and I’m delighted to have it confirmed at Cabinet today that SETU and ATU will be home to two new vet schools. We’ve been calling for a SETU presence in Kilkenny for some time now. With the establishment of this new vet college we’ll have one, and it brings an initial €50 million investment for a potential intake of 40 students.

Visiting the SETU marquee at the National Ploughing Championshipsthis week.

As the largest Teagasc college, with a strong track-record of providing excellent agricultural, horticultural and equine training, Kildalton is ideally set-up to host this new school. It’s on major transport routes and it’s located in the hub of the south-east region where there is huge demand for veterinary practices and animal husbandry.

I want to congratulate SETU and Kildalton Agricultural College on developing an outstanding proposal. This is a welcome announcement, a welcome investment in our region, and a great vote of confidence in SETU and the South-East region.