Rónán Mullen (Independent)

We need 6,000 GPs in this country to provide adequate primary care services to people. We only have approximately 4,500. The country has a shortfall of 1,500 GPs. Meanwhile, 30% of newly qualified GPs are emigrating, seeking better working conditions and opportunities. This haemorrhaging of doctors and nurses to the US, UK, Canada and Australia is a crisis. The Irish College of General Practitioners, ICGP, annual conference heard at the weekend that three quarters of GPs were not accepting new medical card patients and just over two thirds were not taking private patients in 2023. There are approximately 2,000 nursing and midwife positions currently unfilled in the health sector, with 53% of nurses currently practising here having been trained abroad.

One immediate way to address this crisis would be to reserve, say, 50% of all medical places in college for people who would sign contracts expressing a willingness to work in Ireland for up to ten years after graduation. The other 50% could be reserved for Irish or international full-fee paying students. Failure to honour the commitment would require that people pay their fees back in full. Drastic times call for drastic measures. The notion that we can be training people at a cost between €120,000 and €200,000 per person, which is a cost to the State, and letting them then go abroad with their expertise, given we have a crisis at home, is nonsensical. There are many students, with maybe 400 to 500 points in the leaving certificate, including from non-traditional medical backgrounds, who would love to serve their fellow citizens if they could get a shot at medical school. The shortage of medical personnel, and particularly GPs, makes drastic action imperative. Similarly with nursing places, there are so many who would happily stay to serve in Ireland if they were accepted in nursing college. There may be other places in the economy with critical shortages where we need to take effective action. My point, on which I request a debate, is that we need to stop wasting taxpayer money on highly expensive education programmes. We are not delivering the number of medical professionals that our people need and there is something that can be done, which we must do.