Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 February 2022
56. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science his plans to increase degree places for nursing and midwifery for September 2022 and beyond; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6386/22]
View answerThis relates to increasing the number of places in universities for nursing and midwifery. Will the Minister make a statement on the matter?
I thank the Deputy for this important and timely question. My Department is strongly committed to supporting the health of our population through the provision of graduates with the key competencies and skills to be effective in the health workforce and to support a range of clinical teams in our health services. I am pleased that in the two years this Department has existed, in both 2020 and 2021, we ensured additional places for nursing and midwifery. There were approximately 200, or perhaps slightly more, additional places on nursing and midwifery courses in 2021. We quite significantly increased the number of nursing places last year.
My officials are currently engaging with the Higher Education Authority and institutions on the provision of additional places for the coming year. It is the intention that there will be a focus on areas such as healthcare. In agreeing with Deputy Conway-Walsh on this point, I indicated we must take a targeted approach this year. As Minister, I am asked how many extra college places will be created, which is important, and more places will be created. The more important question, as raised by Deputies Gannon and Conway-Walsh, is how to provide these places in targeted areas where we need more people. We are working with the institutions and my colleague, the Minister for Health, to see if we can provide additional college places, particularly in the health service area, and whether it can then provide additional training places. Of course, for every additional nurse or doctor place, a training placement is required also.
We are very actively engaging with the Department of Health, as we have been for some time, on determining the longer-term skills needs of the healthcare services and the role the further and higher education sector can play in meeting those skills needs. We provided additional places in nursing last year and the year before and I expect there will be further additional places this year. I am happy to provide the Deputy with more detail when we conclude those conversations, which is likely to be in March.
That is brilliant. I have a suggestion about where some of those places may come from. A couple of months ago my office was contacted by a young woman who took part in a QQI level 5 course in nursing. She got full distinctions on the course but was unable to access university because there were a limited number of places for people transitioning from QQI level 5 to nursing at university and college level.
We called around to different colleges and determined that at QQI level 5, or colleges of further education, there were between 1,168 and 1,296 places for nursing, depending on interest, but there were only 152 places in 13 colleges for students trying to access nursing through that route. We also have the figures for midwifery. Could we look at improving access via this route of QQI level 5 courses? Students have a passion for the subject but they simply cannot access the places in colleges. We could look at this way of increasing the cohort in question almost immediately.
The Deputy is entirely right. Since giving my initial response, I found the figure in question from 2020. There were 135 additional places in 2020 and approximately 200 additional places in 2021. It is an increase of approximately 335 nursing and midwifery places over the past year.
The Deputy is on to something and he is entirely correct. All of us, including me, regularly tell students about the options and pathways that further education has. It is true those pathways are not as developed as they need to be for nursing. I will not name the institutions in this House but I have been in parts of the country where the college of further education is in one place, You can see through its windows the university or institute of technology, and the venue for pre-nursing and-or the university degree is adjacent but there is no pathway in place. One of the conversations I am having is, instead of having a global figure of increase this year, whether we can ring-fence some of those places to increase pathways from further education.
It always happens, regardless of points, that some people who would make a very good nurse or midwife go the further education and training route. I accept we are losing too many of them now. "Yes" is the short answer. Rather than just increasing the general number, we must work with the autonomous institutions to see if more places can be ring-fenced for this. I am happy to work with the Deputy on this.
I do not need to dwell any more deeply on this. Last year, for example, 1,296 students were in colleges of further education who would have made exceptionally good nurses. They chose that pathway, studying for a year in the area, before finding there were very limited places for them in university. I worked in career guidance for early school-leavers, encouraging people to do nursing that way because they would have been fantastic in the field. They might do great over the year but the pathways are very limited. We can and should address this. I appreciate that universities are autonomous but there is an exceptional talent pool in those FETAC courses. We should harness it and give those people the option to progress to university and a vocation.
While I always feel obligated to say the universities are autonomous, I do not wish to sound that I intend in any way, shape or form to be a bystander on this matter. They are autonomous but they are also funded heavily by the taxpayer. We have a right as an Oireachtas to have a policy view on this. Deputy Conway-Walsh asked about a sustainable funding model and there will be a list of reforms we can legitimately say, from a public policy perspective, we would like to see addressed. The pathway from further education and training to higher education is an obvious one. There are some genuinely good examples but nursing is an underdeveloped pathway.
As I go around the country, I have identified areas where there could be significant improvement. The Deputy can be sure my officials, as they engage on the global numbers for nursing and midwifery this year, will want to increase it again, as we have in the past two years. We will genuinely give focus to this. As we sit down to have the conversation about sustainable funding models, this will be a key reform request on our side of the table.
