Maeve O'Connell (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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888. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to report on the work of his Department to establish a consistent process for prioritisation and advancement of requests to expand provision in key areas of public sector workforce planning for critical skills. [27321/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Addressing workforce planning needs for the public sector in a sustainable manner requires a whole of government approach. In recent years over 1,000 places have been added to programmes of acute skills shortage, particularly in the health and social care disciplines.

At the request of my Department, the Higher Education Authority (HEA) has run two Expression of Interest (EoI) processes to establish the capacity for expansion in training places for key public sector skills needs.

In 2022, on foot of workforce needs expressed by the Department of Health and Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, a process was run by the HEA to identify potential expansionary capacity in Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Pharmacy and Veterinary Medicine. This has resulted in a unprecedented amount of investment and expansion of new programmes with a broad geographic spread, including a new Dentistry programme, two new Veterinary Medicine programmes, three new Pharmacy programmes and two new Medicine programmes. These new programmes are due to commence in 2025 and 2026

This year a second Expression of Interest Process has been conducted in respect of key health and social care professions, including the therapies. This second EoI is currently being reviewed by an interdepartmental working group with senior officials from Department of Health, HSE, Department of Education and Youth, Department of Children, Disability and Equality and chaired by DFHERIS. I expect to bring recommendations regarding expansion in these health and social disciplines to government in the coming weeks.

It is my intention to approach further expansion in these areas in a similar manner, with a process conducted by the HEA followed by prioritisation and advancement of expansion informed by the relevant stakeholders.

My Department are also looking at alternative pathways into tertiary education, including apprenticeships and tertiary degrees, which are outside the CAO system, allowing for a more diverse student cohort. Expansion in these pathways will form a key part of our overall efforts to meet the skills needs of the public sector and the economy as a whole.

I will continue to work with my Government colleagues to identify and address areas of skills shortage in the public sector.