Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank my party colleague, Deputy Burke, not just for raising this matter but also for meeting with me on the issue. We had a really good engagement, which I will return to in a moment. Expanding the number of places available on health and social care profession programmes is a significant priority for my Department. It is so important for the delivery of healthcare services and cancer care to people throughout our country. Last year, I announced more than 400 additional permanent places on healthcare programmes for the current academic year, which started in September 2023. This included five additional places on the radiation therapy programme at Trinity College Dublin.

I know the Deputy appreciates there are certain issues at play that can constrain expansion in radiation therapy. In particular, these relate to the securing of additional placements and practice tutors in the health sector. I had an excellent meeting with him and representatives from the Trinity College Dublin and University College Cork radiation therapy programmes, as well as a number of radiation therapy professionals, last October. We discussed proposals that would see an expansion of student numbers on the radiation therapy programmes at both Trinity and University College Cork. Given the requirements for additional clinical placements and practice tutors, the Deputy’s proposal was passed to the Department of Health for its input on those two key elements.

Officials from both Departments met representatives of the two universities on 6 February to further explore how we could deliver this further expansion in student numbers. I am pleased to say both institutions undertook to provide further information to the Department of Health on placement and practice tutor requirements. I understand some funding has been allocated by the Department of Health to support the development of sustainable practice education for health and social care professions this year. The national health and social care professions office at the HSE is co-ordinating this process and leading on a number of programmes to support practice education.

In short, there is a great willingness from both Departments to do something in this area, as well as from Trinity, UCC, the Deputy and professionals in this area. We now need to bottom out the clinical placement and practice tutor elements, and if we can do that, we can make significant progress in the weeks ahead.

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