Vol. 403 No. 4
224 Mr. McGrath asked the Minister for Health if he has any proposals to implement a system of central application for entry into nurse training; and if his attention has been drawn to the excessive cost being imposed on young people who are anxious to gain entry into nurse training by having to apply and be interviewed by the various individual nurse training schools.
Section 35 (2) of the Nurses Act, 1985, gives powers to An Bord Altranais to establish, if it so determines, a central applications bureau to process applications from persons wishing to undertake nurse training.
Although An Bord Altranais decided to exercise its powers under this section, agreement on the nature of the Central Applications Bureau (CAB) could not be reached with some of the health boards and a large number of voluntary hospitals. A decision to suspend the CAB was, accordingly, taken by the board.
An Bord Altranais has recently commenced a comprehensive review of nurse education and training and the whole question of entry into training is one of the issues to be addressed in that context.
