Third Level Admissions
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-29
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James Lawless (FF), Kildare North

This is an all-of-government priority in terms of meeting the disability needs of our people. We made a decision at a Cabinet subcommittee early in the term that my Department can increase the number of therapists coming through third level and into the workforce. An interdepartmental working group is working with the Ministers for Health and Education and Youth and will examine the number of places we need to fill.
We have produced a list of the occupations with the most critical skills shortages in terms of disability and health care supports. That has led to a first-round call. Having worked with my colleagues to identify the particular therapies and occupations that were most critically needed, I made a call, through the HEA, to third level providers to ask what colleges were in a position to meet the call and demand. From that first response, starting in September an 478 additional places are being created across the different therapies. There is a second call under way at the moment.
The first call asked colleges with existing course provision through schools of nursing, therapy, medicine and healthcare whether they could increase the number of places on their courses. That call has now been completed and, I understand, 461 places have been created, rising to 478 over the next year or two. The next call asked colleges that do not currently provide those sort of courses and do not have schools in the relevant area whether they are in a position to provide such courses. For example, Maynooth launched a school of nursing which did not exist this time last year. That is one among many colleges that will ramp up its provision of different therapies. This is an all-of-government priority. As I said, I am happy to be able to deliver an additional 478 places in the first round. I have many more rounds to go, and I continue intend to continue to grow that workforce.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:34+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-29