Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

561. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of increasing the number of places available on speech and language therapy courses. [38624/24]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

562. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of increasing the number of places available on occupational therapy courses. [38625/24]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 561 and 562 together.

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are autonomous institutions responsible for their own academic affairs including the curriculum and student numbers on individual courses. The costs incurred by a HEI in increasing student places on a particular course or establishing an additional course can vary depending on a variety factors including the type of course and the individual circumstances of the relevant HEI.

Where additionally is required on courses or a new course is required, specific engagement with the sector and external stakeholders is very often required. This process allows for a deeper consideration of wider issues such as capacity, staffing, other supports, availability of placements, capital investment in buildings and equipment etc. It is therefore, not possible to definitively calculate the costs sought in the absence of a specific engagement with the sector.

The delivery of healthcare programmes is complex and requires multiple parts of the health and education systems working together.

It should be noted that in recent years there has been a substantial expansion of therapy and key healthcare places in Higher Education Institutions in Ireland. In July, Government approved the prioritisation of funding to support the expansion of training places in priority healthcare areas including Speech and Language Therapy and Occupational Therapy, as well as Physiotherapy.

From September this year additional places on Speech and Language Therapy and Occupational Therapy programmes in University of Galway, and an undergraduate Occupational Therapy programme is also being introduced at University of Limerick. Further expansion next year will result in an overall 35% increase in places on therapy discipline programmes.

Additionality has been delivered in recent years with over 460 permanent new higher education healthcare places created in September 2023 in Irish HEIs, and further capacity created in Northern Ireland, where an additional 80 places in allied healthcare disciplines in Ulster University in September 2023 were created for students from this jurisdiction. These places include 28 in Occupational Therapy and 10 in Speech and Language Therapy. A similar arrangement is in train for September 2024.

Extensive engagement is ongoing between officials in the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, and officials in the Department of Health, as well as the HSE and higher education sector. Work is underway on the oversight and infrastructure for clinical placements to enable further expansion.