Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail)
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632. To ask the Minister for Health if she will provide an update on her efforts to establish a workforce planning expert unit, to work 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; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4293/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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A Strategic Workforce Planning Unit was established in the Department of Health in 2020 following a programme for Government commitment to establish an expert unit to work 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.

Department of Health officials engage on an ongoing basis with colleagues in the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and other relevant stakeholders to ensure that we train enough graduates with the skills necessary to support the delivery of health and social care services and to develop a strategic approach to workforce planning for the health sector.

Significant progress has been made working with the Higher Education Sector and Professional Bodies to increase student training for the health sector. In September 2022 an agreement was secured with the Irish Medical Schools for an additional 200 Irish/EU medicine student places by 2026. Over the period 2014 to 2023 first-year nursing places in Irish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) grew from 1,570 to approximately 2,100 – an increase of almost 34%.

Over 660 additional student places were provided in the Higher Education Sector on health-related courses in 2023. This includes over 120 student places in Nursing and Midwifery and 80 student places in Allied Health Professions in Northern Ireland.

In July 2024, Government approved the prioritisation of funding to support the expansion of training places in priority healthcare areas including Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy. This will contribute to delivering expansion in the region of 35% in these vital disciplines over the next two academic years.

Additional student places that commenced in September 2024 include: 20 additional Speech and Language Therapy places, 40 additional Occupational Therapy places, 15 additional Podiatric Medicine places, 10 additional Physiotherapy places, 40 additional Medicine places and approximately 170 additional Nursing and Midwifery places.

187 additional student places are also being provided in Northern Ireland in academic year 2024/25 co-funded by the Department of Health and the Department Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science including 26 places in Medicine, 78 places in nursing, 83 places in Allied Health Professions, including Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Dietetics Speech and Language Therapy, Dietetics and Radiography. A further 25 medicine places in Northern Ireland will be funded in 2025.

Further work is underway in the Department of Health with the Department Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and the Higher Education Sector to increase the domestic supply of doctors, nurses and midwives, dentists, and health and social care professionals.