The HSE commissioned a review of the Physician Assistant role with the aim of making recommendations regarding the governance of the role, scope of practice, and appropriate and safe deployment in Ireland. Given the commitment to carry out an independent review, the HSE decided to pause the recruitment of Physician Assistants. Due to a lack of clarity as to the scope of practice and governance arrangements for the physician assistant role, the HSE paused recruitment and commissioned an independent review of the role.

The primary purpose of pausing HSE recruitment of physician assistants, commissioning an independent review and developing a HSE implementation plan is to support the safe and consistent deployment of the role across the Irish public health system. As committed in the 2025 national service plan, the HSE commissioned an independent review of the physician assistant role.

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 1,711 words across 5 contributions by 3 speakers.