Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I cannot speak in regard to the banks, but I take the point the Deputy makes. It could well be a barrier for many people in accessing financial assistance. I can examine how we can provide greater financial assistance. I have already pointed out that the student assistance fund is a more immediate-term mechanism. The first of two other areas I want to examine is SUSI, in the context of the review, and whether there is something we can do there to help. Second, we are already providing a degree of subsidised fees to the tune of over €11,000 per student per year who goes into graduate entry medicine. Can we do more in that regard? They are the two practical areas that people in this House can reasonably ask me to examine. I am very happy to do that.

From my point of view, as the Minister with responsibility for higher education and skills in this country I can see a lot of merit in the idea that a young student leaving school might wish to do a degree that could benefit him or her later when studying medicine. In a number of European and other countries across the world it is often the case that the doctor one sees at one's bedside is a fully qualified medical doctor but also has a background in another area. For example, occupational therapists and scientists in this country have gone on to be doctors. The pandemic has shown that there is benefit in broadening that base of diversity in learning. I do not want medicine to be the preserve of any one group of people in our society.

See this speech in context