Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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96. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the present intake into courses catering to the key areas of health needs; and if he will indicate whether there are plans for new initiatives to meet recruitment bottlenecks through new places or flexible programmes such as Springboard. [6756/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The number of students classified as new entrants studying health and welfare related programmes in higher level education in 2021/2022 academic year was 6,855. This data was sourced from the HEA statistics website hea.ie/statistics/data-for-download-and-visualisations/access-our-data/access-our-data-students/

Ensuring an appropriate pipeline of suitably qualified professionals in key healthcare disciplines is a 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.

Health and social care programmes are by their nature complex in delivery. The availability of appropriate placements and placement supports is a key enabler of expansion. A working group, including representation from the Department of Health, HSE and CORU, as well as the higher education sector, has been established to specifically examine how placements can be secured to facilitate greater numbers of training places across health and social care professions.

The Higher Education Authority is currently running a process to identify where capacity could be built in the higher education sector in a number of healthcare areas including Medicine and Nursing. It is the intention that further such processes for other disciplines will be run later in the year.