Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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605. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the total number of places in medicine in each institution by undergraduate and graduate entry medicine for students from Ireland, Northern Ireland, Britain, other European Union and non-European Union international for 2021, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9557/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The data requested by the Deputy is not yet available for the 2021/22 academic year. My Department's key source of enrolment statistics is the HEA's Student Records System (SRS). The census date for the collection of the Student Record System data is the 1st of March of the academic year, and therefore the enrolment statistics for 21/22 have not not been collected. The data for the 2021/22 academic year will be published later this year.

First year enrolments by domicile and HEI for the 2020 academic year, the latest available, are available at the link.

">Medicine Enrolments

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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606. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of medical places combined across undergraduate and graduate entry medical allocated to European Union students including Britain and Northern Ireland in each year since 2011; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9558/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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For the years in question, the Fottrell Report provided the basis on which the level of provision in medical schools is determined. It specifies that an intake of between 700 and 740 EU students per annum is required to move towards national self-sufficiency. This target marked a more than doubling of the number of EU students who were accepted in to medical schools at the time the report was published.

The number of first year enrolments in medicine courses, by domicile, is available in the table below for the years 2012 to 2020. The data is as reported on the HEA's Student Records System (SRS). It should be noted that there are some reliability issues for domicile data collected in earlier years.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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607. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the anticipated increase in Irish and European Union student places in both undergraduate and graduate entry medicine in the academic year 2022 and 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9559/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I recognise the critical importance of having a strong pipeline of healthcare graduates, and my Department is strongly committed to supporting the health of the population through the provision of graduates with the key competencies and skills to be effective in the health workforce, and support a range of clinical teams in our health services. 

The Programme for Government commits the Department of Health to working with the education sectors, regulators, and professional bodies to improve the availability of health professionals and reform their training to support integrated care across the entire health service.  

My officials are actively engaging with the Department of Health on determining the current and long term skills needs of the healthcare services, and the role which the further and higher education sector can play in meeting those skills needs. One element of this engagement centres on increasing the number of places available in medicine for Irish and EU students, and discussion between my Department, the Department of Health and the medical schools are ongoing.

I will ensure that there is continued engagement with all stakeholders to ensure that we deliver graduates with the skills necessary to support our healthcare system and support the strategic workforce planning by the health sector.