James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

I mentioned some of the places we have provided and we intend to provide further places in these areas. There are also agreements regarding healthcare provision with Ulster University and Queen's University Belfast resulting in a further 389 places over the last two years. I visited Queen's University Belfast over the Easter break and met the president, Ian Greer. I also met some of the students from the Republic who are attending courses there. I am told they are excelling in their fields. They were certainly great ambassadors for the scheme. That provision from the Northern universities is welcome.

We are also engaging with stakeholders across the sector to determine the number of additional places for 2025. We have provided multiple additional places already - numbering 1,000 last year - but I want to keep on providing further options. I recently asked the HEA to run an expressions of interest programme. The Higher Education Authority put out a call to the universities to see which universities were placed to offer further provision, increasing the output of therapists across all of the different healthcare disciplines. That is going extremely well. We have had very positive responses to it. I intend to update the Cabinet subcommittee on that. I may return to that in my next supplementary response.

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