Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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On 1 February I announced, together with the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Mary Hanafin, details of a major reform programme in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education and training, based on the recommendations in the Report of the Working Group on Undergraduate Medical Education and Training, chaired by Professor Pat Fottrell, and the Report of the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Group, chaired by Dr. Jane Buttimer. Both reports were published on that date.

The initial indicative cost of implementing the reform programme approved by the Government is estimated to be in the region of €200 million over the period 2006-10, subject to undertaking further costing studies and an audit of existing and required facilities. In particular, the overall capital requirements in the undergraduate and postgraduate areas will be the subject of detailed appraisal of existing infrastructure and future needs.

Among the major reforms to be funded at undergraduate level are: a more than doubling of the number of medical places for Irish and EU students over a four year period from 305 to 725; the introduction of a new graduate entry programme for medicine from 2007 as part of the overall expansion of places; curriculum and clinical training developments aimed at enhancing the quality of undergraduate medical education; the development of a new aptitude test for selection for graduate entry to medicine; devising proposals for a new selection mechanism for entry to undergraduate medicine to involve a combination of CAO points and suitability test performance from 2008 at the earliest; and the creation of new academic clinician posts to be jointly funded by the education and health sectors.

Among the major reforms to be funded at postgraduate level are: improved retention of graduates from Irish medical schools through a range of measures to enhance the quality and attractiveness of postgraduate specialist training; phasing out NCHD posts with limited training value within a feasible and realistic timeframe; better workforce planning to align the numbers of doctors in training with projected consultant vacancies; inclusion in the Medical Practitioners Bill of provisions to assign appropriate medical education and training functions to the HSE and, where appropriate, the Medical and Dental Councils; implementing the training principles to be incorporated into new working arrangements for doctors in training; and the development of research in the health sector.