Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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877. To ask the Minister for Health the number of full-time physiotherapists employed per CHO area in tabular form. [10053/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond directly to the Deputy, as soon as possible.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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878. To ask the Minister for Health the number of full-time occupational therapists employed per CHO area in tabular form. [10054/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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In relation to the particular query raised, as this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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879. To ask the Minister for Health the number of full-time dentists employed per CHO area in tabular form. [10055/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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880. To ask the Minister for Health if his Department has plans to incentivise recently qualified medical and nursing graduates who received State resources during their education to stay in Ireland for a few years before they travel if they choose to. [10056/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Recruitment and retention of recently qualified healthcare workers is a key priority. All recently qualified nursing graduates were offered permanent contracts of employment in 2020 and 2021. It is expected that the 2022 graduates will also be offered permanent contracts. These nurses and midwives, after one year and 16 weeks' suitable experience, will be eligible to apply for the enhanced nurse-midwife role and salary scale.

Retention efforts by the HSE both nationally and locally are in place with significant career development and progression and educational/development opportunities being offered. The Department is working with the National Doctors Training and Planning (NDTP) Office of the HSE in relation to medical workforce planning and initiatives aimed at increasing opportunities for training and career progression for trainee doctors.Opportunities for training and career progression for doctors in the Irish Health system continue to evolve. Examples of the initiatives include:

- The Introduction of the online National Employment Record (NER) has now eliminated the requirement for duplication of paperwork associated with NCHD rotations.

- Enhanced Financial Supports: The Training Support Scheme (TSS), introduced in July 2019, provides reimbursement for approved exams, courses or conferences and is open to all NCHDs. Since July 2019 the full costs of approved examination/courses are eligible for refund to NCHDs under the Clinical Course Exam Refund Scheme (CCERS), this was previously capped at €450.

- Greater predictability of the location of rotations are now provided to trainees at the outset of training. All newly appointed trainees receive a minimum of 2 years pre-defined rotations, a minimum of 13 weeks prior to commencing training/entry to their training scheme, while trainees entering year 3 of a training scheme receive a minimum of 2 years pre-defined rotations a minimum of 13 weeks prior to commencing year 3 of the scheme.

- Increased rationalised training opportunities: A number of training schemes are moving towards more a regionalised structure of training. This is specialty dependent, but examples include the intern rotations which take place within a particular intern network and geographic location.

- Introduction of the Lead NCHD programme: The programme was introduced to provide a formal link at hospital management level between NCHDs and management, and to develop leadership capacity within NCHDs. The programme now runs across 32 acute hospitals, Community Health Organisations (CHOs), Public Health and Primary Care settings.

- Expansion of supernumerary Flexible Training HSE scheme posts: Since July 2016 the scheme has expanded from 24 to 32 annual places. The scheme has also been extended to junior trainees from year 2 BST onwards;

- NDTP have recently launched a new E-Portfolio / Logbook accessible to NCHDs via their National Employment Record. The principal objective of the E-Portfolio is to allow NCHDs who are not on a formal training scheme access to a generic standard document to record their training and career development. It also provides the opportunity to have their experience validated by their supervising Consultant where applicable.

The HSE NDTP Office is in the initial stages of work regarding doctors who completed an internship in Ireland. Early and provisional data shows that a high percentage of medical interns who graduate leave Ireland for at least one year. However, the data shows that 82% of interns who commenced one year intern training in July 2015 subsequently commenced a Basic Specialist Training (BST) or General Practice (GP) training programme in subsequent years (2016-2021). A small number of the 2015 cohort also remain in the Irish health system either in service grade posts or employed within the private healthcare sector.