Professor Riste?rd ? Laoide:

There are about 30 in Trinity College Dublin and 12 places in Cork. In Cork they have not been able to fill those places in the past three years due to the number of applicants for the course. Another significant issue is the actual career path for radiation therapists. SIPTU wrote to the Department of Health and the HSE about three years ago to look at that. A review committee is in place looking at that now. The draft final report came out in March 2024. It is not published yet because it is a draft but I hope that will be out imminently. That has representatives from human resources in the HSE and from the Department of Health, and from SIPTU. We have to develop career progression and education within the profession. It is true for many social care professionals but it is critical in radiation therapy. I hope that will be announced and hopefully there will be financial backing for it. We need to implement it because we see it, even in our own national cancer control programme, NCCP. We have radiation therapists working within the NCCP in our organisation. Would it not be better to have those radiation therapists working in the radiation oncology units? However, career progression and so forth are important issues.