Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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441. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the quotas for nursing students in both the 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 academic years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60728/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Since Covid-19, a number of additional places have been added to the system to increase the number of nursing students.

- under the Additional Places initiatives 2021/22 – an additional c.188 places were made available

- under the Additional Places initiative 2022/23 – an additional c.135 places were made available

This brings the number of new nursing students to 1,954.

The HEA recently issued an expression of interest to Higher Education Institutions for further additional places in Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Pharmacy and Veterinary. It is expected that further additional places will be created as a result of this process for the academic year starting from 2024/205.

To take forward implementation of Funding the Future, I established a steering group which I chair alongside Professor Anne Looney and Professor Tom Collins. Two working groups have been established led by Professors Looney and Collins. Working Group two is chaired by Professor Collins and is focused on skills, participation and cost and is currently focusing on skills shortages in Nursing and issues impacting on expansion - particularly in relation to securing appropriate placements.

The matter of health workforce planning and ensuring an appropriate pipeline of qualified healthcare workers within Ireland, is a major priority for my Department. The Programme for Government commits the Department of Health to working with the education sectors, regulators, and professional bodies to improve the availability of health professionals and reform their training to support integrated care across the entire health service.

It is important to say that the provision of such programmes in the further and higher education system must have regard to overall workforce plans which are the responsibility of the relevant agencies and Departments to develop for their sectors. Such plans need to take account of planned service expansion, retirement and improvements in the retention of existing staff, and changes in the mix of staff which employers are best placed to understand and influence.

My officials are actively engaging with the Department of Health and other relevant stakeholders to ensure that we can continue to deliver graduates with the skills necessary to support our healthcare system and support the strategic workforce planning by the health sector.