A Help-line is to be set up to assist vets, especially younger ones, to cope with their personal and professional difficulties. The line is the brainchild of Mr Corry Mehigan, a retired lecturer in veterinary medicine. He came to the Irish Veterinary Congress in Cork last weekend to persuade the Irish Veterinary Union and the Irish Veterinary Association to back the proposal.
"A lot of younger people go into the job because they get high points in their Leaving Certificate and then they find when they start to work that they have grave difficulties," he said.
"Quite a few of them have not been exposed to the fact that being a vet is a very demanding job with heavy physical labour involved at very unsocial times," he said.
He said the job can often be a lonely one, with little social contact outside working hours. The suicide rate in the profession in Ireland was lower than in the UK, where vets were among the professionals most likely to take their own lives.
Mr Pat Brady, the general secretary of the Irish Veterinary Union, said he would be recommending the help-line to the IVU executive for funding. The congress was told nearly 80 per cent of this year's intake to the Veterinary College in Dublin were women - the highest figure in the history of veterinary education.