Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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910. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the annual tuition fees charged to non-EU students in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, physiotherapy and veterinary medicine programmes in each higher education institution for each of the years from 2021-2022 to 2026-2027; whether this information has been sought from the institutions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [68439/26]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Higher education institutions are autonomous bodies under the Universities Act 1997 and the Higher Education Authority Act 2022, with responsibility for managing their academic, administrative and financial affairs. This includes determining tuition fee levels for individual programmes, including those applicable to non-EU students. Institutions are therefore responsible for setting and publishing their own fee schedules, taking account of programme delivery costs, clinical training requirements, international recruitment strategies and broader institutional considerations.

My Department's role is to provide the policy and funding framework for higher education and to work collaboratively with the Higher Education Authority and institutions to support national priorities, including the expansion of capacity in key healthcare disciplines. In that context, there has been substantial engagement with institutions in recent years to increase the number of education and training opportunities available in areas such as medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, physiotherapy, veterinary medicine and other health and social care professions.

As tuition fees for non-EU students are determined independently by each institution, my Department does not regulate, approve or maintain records of fee levels charged across individual programmes or institutions. Accordingly, my Department does not collect data on the annual tuition fee information requested for non-EU students in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, physiotherapy and veterinary medicine programmes.

Information on tuition fees is generally published by institutions as part of their admissions and international student information and is available directly from the relevant higher education institutions. Given the autonomy of institutions in this area, they remain the authoritative source for programme-specific fee information.

It is important to note that Ireland's universities and higher education institutions play a central role in supporting a high-quality, internationally connected higher education system. International students contribute to the diversity, global engagement and academic strength of institutions, while helping to sustain world-class teaching, research and innovation environments.

Separately, the Government has continued to invest significantly in expanding healthcare education capacity to support national workforce needs. Since 2022, approximately 1,697 additional annual healthcare and disability training places have been approved across disciplines including medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, physiotherapy and other health and social care professions. This reflects the Government's commitment to ensuring that higher education institutions have the capacity to support Ireland's future healthcare workforce requirements while maintaining the excellence and international standing of the sector

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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911. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the approved intake capacity and number of available first-year places, as distinct from actual enrolments, for medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, physiotherapy and veterinary medicine programmes in each higher education institution in each academic year from 2021-2022 to 2026-2027; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [68438/26]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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The Government has significantly expanded healthcare education capacity in recent years to support healthcare workforce planning, the implementation of Sláintecare and the delivery of Programme for Government commitments. Since 2022, Government approvals have enabled capacity-building for approximately 1,697 additional annual healthcare and disability training places across medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, physiotherapy and other health and social care professions.

This additional capacity includes:

• 200 additional annual medicine places delivered through the 2022 Medicine Expansion Agreement;
• 612 additional annual places across medicine, nursing, pharmacy and veterinary medicine approved through the 2022 healthcare education expansion process;
• the establishment of new pharmacy programmes at Atlantic Technological University (ATU), South East Technological University (SETU) and University of Galway;
• the establishment of a new dentistry programme at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI);
• the establishment of two new veterinary medicine programmes at ATU and SETU, providing an additional 80 veterinary medicine places annually and approximately doubling the number of veterinary medicine places available to Irish and EU students;
• 461 additional disability therapy places approved through the 2025 healthcare education expansion process, including significant expansion of physiotherapy capacity; and
• a further 274 healthcare training places approved by Government in July 2026 across a range of health and social care professions, including additional physiotherapy places.

The Higher Education Authority (HEA) collects annual enrolment data from higher education institutions. As the number of places made available is a matter for individual institutions, the closest available centrally held measure is the number of first-year students enrolled on the relevant programmes. The available data are set out below.