Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I fully agree with the Deputy that this year should not just be about announcing an additional number of college places. More college places will be available this year. As the Deputy rightly suggested, it has been the case in previous years as well. Budget 2022 provided approximately €20 million for extra growth in the higher education sector. There will be additional funding and places. As the Deputy correctly pointed out, the bigger challenge is to try and focus in this year on the in-demand courses or the courses where there are particular pressure points. One such course is medicine. I fully agree that from a public health policy point of view, we need more doctors. As she will be aware, it is not just a case of creating a college place, because for every place on a medicine course, a training hospital place is required. It is a similar story with dentistry and a number of other courses. What my Department has been doing for the past number of months, and is intensifying now, is trying to work with Department of Health to identify whether we can provide X number more of funded medicine places in September across our college system and the Department of Health can provide Y more training places. I expect to be in a position to bring forward good news on that. Our focus is exactly as the Deputy suggested in looking at the in-demand areas and the areas in which we want to see public service improvement.

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