Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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58. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if additional places on nursing courses will be provided for the 2022-23 academic year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6459/22]

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I want to establish if the Minister is going to focus on having additional places for nursing and for other critical skills, additional places in college, and through the various channels, for the year ahead.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Aindrias Moynihan for this important and timely question. The Government has increased the number of places in higher education by approximately 6,000 over the past two years. Obviously, that is a global figure. I would also make the point, which might be somewhat reassuring or informative to leaving certificate students this year, that, as of the CAO deadline last week, the number of students who had applied to the CAO relative to the same time last year was down by 1,141. We will have to see how this plays out in the weeks ahead, but there is a slight decrease this year in the number of students applying through the CAO compared with last year.

We have made a number of significant increases in the overall places, and we have made targeted increases in specific places, including nursing and midwifery, where places have grown by 325 over the past two years. The Government, the Minister of State and I are very conscious of the need to do more. This is why we are working very closely with the Minister for Health and the Department of Health to identify if our sector is in a position to provide further places is the HSE and the Department of Health in a position to provide matching training places. As Deputy Moynihan will be aware, when it comes to healthcare studies the college place is one part, but often the more important component can be the hospital training place. I expect very good progress on that, and I acknowledge the very close working relationship with the Minister for Health in respect of it.

While the initial CAO deadline was last week, we will find out the breakdown of courses, exactly how many people actually applied for the courses, and types of course, in March when the deadlines for higher education access route, HEAR, and disability access route to education, DARE, applicants also passes. I would expect by March to be in a position to give more detail on where the additional places will be, and how that corresponds with the demand we have seen through the CAO this year.

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I acknowledge the additional places that have been provided over the past two years. A lot of the references are in the context of college places. There are a number of different channels through which people get qualified for nursing. For example, there is a QQI level 5 nursing studies PLC course in McEgan College of Further Education in Macroom. There is a health and social studies course at level 6 in Mallow. There is a whole range of different channels through which people can access nursing studies. These are very passionate people who want to get in there and will take whatever route possible to make it happen. Is the Minister providing additional places in those courses? When those people then move on into the degree course, is the Minister reserving places for them to ensure that they have the opportunity? I ask that the Minister would also bear in mind that these people would be the 2020 leaving certificate students and will be competing with 2022 inflated grades for places. There will be that further intensity for them. Perhaps the Minister could clarify if there will be additional places for those people, who are clearly very interested and passionate about getting into nursing.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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With regard to Macroom and Mallow and those courses specifically, I will check with SOLAS and Department regarding the capacity to do more this year. Generally, when it comes to further education and training we tend to be in the space of being demand led, and where there is a local demand we try to provide those additional places at the further education and training levels. I will revert to Deputy Moynihan on that. If there is a willingness and a desire to do more locally, then I am very happy to work with the Deputy to deliver on that. I imagine that we could certainly do that.

The second part of the Deputy's question is, truthfully, trickier. We have dealt with it a couple of times in the House this evening. It was around the pathways between further education and training and higher education. In the interests of time I will just outline briefly that this is an issue we want to focus on. I am not satisfied that there are enough reserved places in higher education for people who have come through the further education route through pre-nursing.

On grade inflation, I pay tribute to my colleague the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley. The scheme the Minister has devised this year, which was outlined last week to leaving certificate students, will effectively, for want of a better phrase, take into account the level of grade inflation from last year to this year, and will provide that level playing pitch between this year's leaving certificate students and last year's students. I am aware that this was a concern many of them had.

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I used the McEgan and Mallow college courses as an example to illustrate the position regarding PLC courses. Consider a student called Hannah, for example, who is clearly passionate about becoming a nurse. She is a 2020 leaving certificate graduate and is now going to be competing with 2022 leaving certificate students and the inflated grades. There needs to be a certain amount of reserved places for people coming through those different channels.

It is not always just about the degree course, the Minister also needs to have additional capacity in those PLC courses and the various different channels through which people will access nursing. Has the Minister looked at that, and will he confirm that there will be additional places so that people who are coming through those channels will have reserved places in those courses? There would have been at least three or four people coming through some of those course who would have been expecting to get into a nursing degree last year but did not make it. Were the additional places at the expense of the PLC people or were they over and above new places?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Those extra places were over and above. While they may not have been ring-fenced for people in further education and training, they certainly did not take away from any existing places. I want to make the point that these were newly created places amounting to 335 additional nursing and midwifery places over 2020 and 2021. That figure will grow further.

I cannot give the Deputy a commitment on the record of the House until I can be sure that I can deliver on it. I can tell the Deputy that it is an absolute focus of my Department in our conversations with the universities that we do not just look for an increase in the global figure when it comes to nursing and midwifery, as relevant to this question. We also look to see how we can grow the number of places that they set aside from that additionality for the further education and training pathway. I am very confident that we can and will be continuing to expand the number of students we will be taking into our PLC courses for nursing. We are investing record amounts there, but quite frankly I believe that we can do even more on that with the budgets we have and the facilities we have. I will come back on the Deputy's specific examples, and I accept that the Deputy is using them as examples. The piece I am trying to work on is the pathway between further education and training and higher education, which Deputy Moynihan has outlined very well.