Aodhan O Faolain
The president of the High Court has confirmed a recommended two-month suspension of well-known equestrian vet Timothy Brennan from the register of vets here.
Ms Justice Mary Irvine said, while she considered the length of suspension recommended by the Veterinary Council of Ireland as lenient, the leniency was not so unreasonable as to justify the court not confirming it.
On the application of Conor Halpin SC, for Mr Brennan, she agreed to defer commencement of the suspension to December 20th and to stay the execution of a costs order until a month after Mr Brennan has resumed work.
Professional misconduct
The Council sought the suspension arising from findings of professional misconduct against Mr Brennan, a vet for the stables of champion trainer Willie Mullins.
J.P. McDowell, of Fieldfisher solicitors, for the council, previously said the application arose from an inspection by Department of Agriculture officials at a horse trainer’s yard on February 9th 2015, which identified bottles with deficient labelling and lacking serial numbers.
When Mr Brennan’s vehicle was inspected, five bottles of unauthorised animal remedies were found and seized and Mr Brennan admitted in a later interview with officials he did not have records at his practice of the products seized.
Mr Brennan, of GSC Veterinary, Gowran Castle Stud, Gowran, Co Kilkenny, pleaded guilty in 2018 at Kilkenny District Court to three charges of having unauthorised animal medications and one of failing to keep records in respect of a named animal remedy.
A Fitness to Practice committee of the Council held an inquiry in October 2018 at which Mr Brennan made admissions of fact in relation to four allegations against him of breaches of certain of the European Communities (Animal Remedies) Regulations 2007.
The committee found proven the first allegation, that he failed to provide an adequate description of the animal/s in relation to a prescription of January 21st 2014 and another on October 5th 2015.
It also found proven three other allegations – having unauthorised animal remedies on February 9th 2015; failing, on four different dates in January and February 2015, to include the serial number on the label affixed to certain animal remedies; and failing on April 20th 2015, to keep at his premises records in respect of transactions concerning a number of animal remedies. The committee found those three allegations, taken individually, amounted to professional misconduct and recommended a four-month suspension.
Mitigating factors
Last October, the council considered the committee’s report and found the professional misconduct was extremely serious. Having considered mitigating factors, it recommended a two-month suspension of Mr Brennan’s registration.
In her judgment on Monday, Ms Justice Irvine said the council was wrong in law in treating as mitigating factors that there were “devastating personal tragedies” in Mr Brennan’s life at the time of the misconduct and its view there would be no repeat of the misconduct.
Mr Brennan, as with all members of his profession, is obliged to practice according to the relevant professional standards, she said.
She decided against returning the matter to the council for reconsideration for reasons including she considered its recommendation was unlikely to change because it had probably given more weight to other factors it properly considered in mitigation and it was also likely to hear submissions about the impact on Mr Brennan of damaging publicity about these events.
While it is important to remind professionals whose conduct is liable to sanction that it is not the courts’ role to just “rubber stamp” the decisions of their governing bodies, this is not a case for the court to impose a different sanction than that recommended, she said.
Her own view that the sanction was less stringent than it should have been was not a basis to set it aside, she said. The sanction still makes clear the seriousness of the misconduct and points out the gravity of it to other members of the profession.
