Third Level Education

2 contributions · 2 speakers · 237 words

Q79 SF Rose Conway-Walsh to the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science

79. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science given the recent recognition by the Minister for Health that Ireland needs to approximately double the number of healthcare professionals it is training, the steps that are being taken to deliver increased provision of healthcare education; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15732/23]

Summary of this debate

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My question is related to the link-up between the demands in the health services and higher education, higher educational professionals and the training that is necessary. As a former Minister for Health, the Minister will understand the enormous gaps that exist. Money is being wasted in places such as Achill Island, where, as the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, can verify, we have paid nearly €1 million on locum GPs because we do not have the GPs in place to serve the whole area.

The Minister for Health and I are doing a scanning exercise to see how we can radically increase the size of the health service from an education point of view. The Minister for Health has arrived here just on cue. I expect to be able to bring a joint proposal with the Minister for Health to Cabinet in the coming weeks to see how we can expand particularly in 2024, 2025 and beyond.

Built by scoring every sentence in the debate on how distinctive its language is, then quoting the highest-scoring ones back word for word and in the order spoken. Nothing is paraphrased or invented — if a sentence appears here, it was said in the chamber. Drawn from 237 words across 2 contributions by 2 speakers.

Most used terms in this debate

How often each word appears across the whole debate, ranked by how distinctive it is to it rather than common to all parliamentary language.

health 7

link-up 1

gps 2

cue 1

minister 7

scanning 1

achill 1

locum 1

hea 1

cabinet 2

verify 1

veterinary 1

The full debate

All 2 contributions, start to finish, in the order they were made.

SF Rose Conway-Walsh

The Minister has partially discussed this issue. My question is related to the link-up between the demands in the health services and higher education, higher educational professionals and the training that is necessary. As a former Minister for Health, the Minister will understand the enormous gaps that exist. Money is being wasted in places such as Achill Island, where, as the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, can verify, we have paid nearly €1 million on locum GPs because we do not have the GPs in place to serve the whole area. It is not only about the waste, it is also about the missed opportunities and the risks to people's lives.

FG Simon Harris

I thank the Deputy.

We touched on this question earlier. The Minister for Health and I are doing a scanning exercise to see how we can radically increase the size of the health service from an education point of view. We updated the Cabinet committee on health on that on Monday. The Minister for Health has arrived here just on cue. I expect to be able to bring a joint proposal with the Minister for Health to Cabinet in the coming weeks to see how we can expand particularly in 2024, 2025 and beyond. There is potential to do much more and the HEA expression of interest process has indicated that. We will formally receive that report along with the veterinary one in the coming weeks.