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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 30 Jan 2002

Vol. 547 No. 1

Written Answers. - Nursing Staff.

Liam Aylward

Ceist:

524 Mr. Aylward asked the Minister for Health and Children if he will instruct An Bord Altranais to automatically include the applicants for the 2001 competition for nursing in the 2002 competition; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1428/02]

The competition for places on the pre-registration nursing education programmes are administered by the nursing careers centre, which is managed by An Bord Altranais, and the Central Applications Office (CAO), Galway.

I have made inquiries of the nursing careers centre and I have been informed that mature applicants who successfully came through the written assessment test and interview in the 2001 competition, but who were not offered a place, were offered the following concessions in relation to the 2002 competition: no CAO application fee required; the pass result from the 2001 interview may be carried forward to 2002; a choice of one of the following the score from the 2001 written assessment may be carried forward to 2002, or the applicant may sit the written assessment in 2002 and use whichever of the 2001 or 2002 scores is the better.

The concessions offered to the mature applicants concerned did not include automatic offers of places on the programme as this would disadvantage applicants in the 2002 competition. It is not open to me to issue an instruction to An Bord Altranais or to the Central Applications Office in relation to how places on the nursing education programmes are to be offered.

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