Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 March 2024
1553. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if he will provide an update on efforts to establish a fees scheme for students resident in the State studying medicine in universities in the North; if this will include graduate entry programmes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12474/24]
View answerAlong with Minister Donnelly, on 29 February 2024, I announced that an agreement had been reached with Queen’s University Belfast for the funding of twenty five (25) additional medical places for qualifying students from Ireland or Northern Ireland in Queen’s from September 2024.
A further twenty-five places will be made available in September 2025 bringing the total number of additional places available to 50. These places will be co-funded by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and the Department of Health.
Students who take up these places will pay the same student contribution rate as their counterparts studying in medical schools in Ireland and will commit to applying and accepting, if offered, a position in the HSE as an intern at the end of their studies.
The places in Queen’s are on the undergraduate medical programme. There is no agreement in place to avail of places on a graduate entry programme in Northern Ireland.
