Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I wish to raise an issue related to HPAT which is the exam that students who wish to study medicine must undertake.

Concerns have been raised recently in the media. I think this examination was introduced in 2009. I am not too sure about the extent of what it has achieved since 2009. The concerns raised relate to over 700 people who attended a particular two-day course in preparation for this examination which was not part of their school curriculum. It would appear that some of the questions were very similar to those they were given during this two-day course. My understanding is that the course costs €595 so we are now pushing entry into medicine into an exclusive area and it is an unfair system from the point of view of people who cannot afford to get the grind or attend these preparation courses.

I ask that the entire idea of HPAT be reviewed. Has it actually achieved anything? Someone who might not get through HPAT this year might do it next year. Does that make them a better doctor in six years' time? I am not sure it does and I am not sure it is a way of assessing someone as regards working in medicine. I know it was a system adopted from Australia but it is time we reviewed it to see whether it has achieved anything to date, whether it is likely to achieve anything and whether it is just an additional cost being imposed on parents which is unnecessary and will not achieve anything in real terms.

Two thirds of all medical graduates are leaving this country within 12 months of graduating. They have decided even before they have come out of college that once their intern year has been completed, they will leave. The cost of medical education in this country per annum is €90 million because it is a five-year course. If one works it out at €30,000 per student per annum, it is €150,000 and with 600 students per year, it adds up to €90 million. Within 12 months of that investment, 60% of it goes out of the country. It is time that we looked at the issue of medical education and also at HPAT to see if there is real value in it and whether it is necessary.