Third Level Admissions Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-01 ============================================================ James Lawless (FF), Kildare North Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir Curley as an tairiscint seo a thabairt isteach. Is ábhar tábhachtach é cinnte. I thank Senator Curley for raising this important matter regarding the HPAT exams and access to medicine more broadly. I acknowledge at the outset that there are very real pressures on students who aspire to study medicine and other very competitive healthcare disciplines. They are competitive courses and I recognise the concerns of students and their families regarding preparedness, access and the pathways available to them. I also recognise that the available supply of medical places continues to fall below demand and that, of course, creates intense competition and pressure on the system. There is an issue in that students can attain a very high level of academic performance and yet still fail to gain entry to their preferred place. The Senator raised a very important point regarding there being many different types of intelligence and purely academic focus not necessarily being the best indicator. There are other aptitudes that should be considered when weighing up entry to courses such as this. As Minister, I am committed to ensuring we have an admissions system that is fair, transparent and robust, and equally to continuing to expand opportunities so that more students can pursue this type of place in the first place. In other words, we are increasing the number of course places available, including in the University of Galway, the University of Limerick, the technological universities and other places, on medical, pharmaceutical, veterinary and other professional courses which are subject to high competition for points. The HPAT itself is independently administered by the Australian Council for Educational Research on behalf of the medical school. It is devolved to that organisation. Neither I nor my Department is involved in its operation because it is independent. However, I am aware that there have been concerns raised about the exam and procedure. I have listened to those concerns and I have spoken to the institutions about them. The institutions themselves have raised these issues and there are changes proposed for entry to medicine from 2027 on, which will include a rebalancing of the weight placed on leaving certificate results and HPAT performance. That is something the Senator is absolutely correct about needing to be done. It is something the institutions and I have taken note of and it is being worked on. The proposed changes will reduce the emphasis on the intensive HPAT preparation and refocus more strongly on leaving certificate achievement, keeping that assessment of aptitude as a marker in line with international best practice. These changes will be of some assistance. The first year will be 2027 and we will continue to watch that space. More broadly, I am commissioning a task force on CAO reform and what I call broad education, which means we are looking at a broad education where a student will be exposed to a variety of disciplines and subjects across arts and humanities, science and technology rather than just having a single deep dive into a particular area from day one. It is important that students have this more classical education, certainly in the early stages. I am commissioning a task force on that, which will allow Ireland to explore broader entry models in some disciplines, including the opportunity to build that wider foundation before specialising. I am also going to continue providing alternative access points into higher education with things like tertiary degrees where a student can attend a course locally for the first year or two before moving on to a more traditional university setting. There are a number of measures under way in this space. I thank the Senator for his consistent interest in this area. I know he is the spokesperson for our party on this and he frequently raises these matters. I thank him for his contributions to developing policy in that area. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-01/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:08+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-01