Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am aware of the Deputy's interest in and knowledge of this area. I know there was a lot of worry and concern among new students of graduate entry medicine when a bank made a decision to withdraw a loan product that had been used by many students of such courses. For the record of the House and for the Deputy's information, I have corresponded with Bank of Ireland on this. The bank made it clear to me that while it was making a commercial decision to withdraw the product, people could continue to apply for the product until 31 July of this year. I say that just by the by, but it is perhaps important information for people who will start such courses in September. There is no immediate cliff edge.

The broader point the Deputy makes very much concerns me. As a former Minister for Health, I am of the view that diversity in the medical profession is a good thing and that people coming to medicine from a whole variety of backgrounds can only be a good thing. We need to look at graduate entry medicine in a different way from how we might look at some other programmes. At the moment, as the Deputy will know, doing graduate entry medicine is marked as doing another level 8 degree, so the reason students do not qualify for the same level of supports or for SUSI is that it is seen as doing another degree at the same level. I am not sure that is quite fair because there could be very significant benefit to the health service and to our population from someone doing a science, occupational therapy or physiotherapy degree and then deciding they wish to become a doctor and having an additional level of qualification, so yes, I am up for looking at that.

How do I intend to look at it? I intend to do a couple of things. First, this came up in the context of the SUSI student grant scheme. At present, the scheme does not encompass graduate entry medicine. I have to be honest with the House: there are legislative, policy and funding issues that relate to this. The student grant review raised the policy question as to whether there should be flexibility for graduate programmes in areas of critical skills shortages, including medicine. One avenue I am looking at is SUSI and whether we could then make that available. I am also considering another range of policy and funding tools to try to increase the supply of domestic medicine graduates. The Deputy will know that we have announced 60 more undergraduate places for September. In that context, I will engage with the Department of Health on whether there is a policy rationale to do more to support graduate entry medicine.

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