Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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64. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the engagement his Department has had with universities, the Department of Health and the HSE to increase college places in the area of mental health care; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6773/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I want to thank the Deputy for raising this important issue.

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.

Significant engagement is ongoing between my Department, the Department of Health, the Department of Education, and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, to develop a joined-up approach to meet system level demand in healthcare, including mental health care disciplines.

These 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.

Approximately 200 additional once-off places were created in nursing courses in 2020 and 2021, in response to both the pressures experienced by Leaving Certificate students and the needs of the health services. In July 2022, I announced an increase in medicine places for EU students in Irish Medical Schools, alongside the Minister for Health. The agreement reached with the medical schools led to an increase of 60 places in September 2022, climbing to 120 in September 2023, and up to 200 by 2026. This will mean by 2026 an additional 200 students will commence medicine each year. In addition, 135 new permanent places in nursing programmes were introduced from last September

The Higher Education Authority is currently running a process to identify where further capacity could be increased in a number of healthcare professional areas including Medicine and Nursing. A second process in respect of further healthcare disciplines will be run later in the year.

Disciplines such as medicine, nursing and a range of allied health professions are relevant to mental health but also to a range of other areas in health and social care. It is for the Department of Health and the HSE to undertake workforce planning for both the overall health services and for particular care areas. My Department is working closely with the Department of Health to translate those workforce plans into the projected demand for health graduates and to substantially increase enrolments in heath related courses, together with expansion in the required number of clinical placements within the health service for those on such programmes.