Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)
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169. To ask the Minister for Health if she intends to introduce advanced practice posts for medical scientists; the work carried out to date to progress this role under the HSCP Advanced Practice Framework; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50612/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Health is currently developing the Policy on Advanced Practice in Health and Social Care Professions. The development of an evidence-based policy is progressing, with work underway by officials in the Department of Health, in collaboration with the Health Service Executive (HSE) National Health and Social Care Professions (HSCP) office.

Budget 2025 provided funding to support continued growth of Advanced Practice in nursing and midwifery and to enable these roles to be rolled out for the first time for Health and Social Care Professionals.

The HSE has established a multi-stakeholder Advanced Practice Implementation Oversight Group (APIOG) focused on the development of HSCP Advanced Practice services. The 2025 HSCP Advanced Practice identification and selection process was developed by the APIOG to ensure transparent, evidence-based, and strategically aligned decision-making for the allocation of Advanced Practice resources.

Proposals across the HSCP disciplines, including medical science, were assessed for implementation following this process. The Candidate Advanced Practitioner HSCP posts in 2025 do not include Candidate Advanced Practitioners in medical science. The process remains open to future proposals and further roll out of Advanced Practice HSCP as evidence and readiness develop.