Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 4 December 2025
425. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Health the campaigns her Department is running to encourage graduating medical professionals to stay and work in the Irish healthcare system; the campaigns which are being run to entice Irish medical professionals living abroad to return to work for the HSE; her plans to future proof supply of medical staff in the health system; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [68551/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraSignificant progress has been made by the Department of Health working in collaboration with the Department of Further and Higher Education and the Higher Education Sector to increase the number of student training places for the health, disability, and education sectors. Over 1,100 additional student places in medicine, nursing and other health related disciplines will be created in 2025 and 2026 to support the workforce needs in these sectors. Further work is underway with DFHERIS and the higher education sector to increase the domestic supply of doctors, nurses and midwives, pharmacists, dentists, and health and social care professionals.
Dedicated medical workforce planning is undertaken within the HSE to ensure that the supply of medical staff meets the future needs of the health service. Medical Interns form the entry point and pipeline for postgraduate training, and the HSE works to ensure that intern numbers are aligned with future training capacity. The HSE provides an intern place for all eligible CAO-entry graduates from Irish medical schools, who submit an eligible application, recognising the significant State investment in their medical education and training. Since 2020, the number of intern posts has increased by approximately 20%, supporting the expansion of the overall medical training pipeline. Over the same period, the number of doctors in postgraduate training programmes has increased by approximately 30%, with further growth planned through the conversion of suitable non-training NCHD posts to training NCHD posts, and continued alignment with national workforce planning projections.
Medical workforce retention data from the annual Medical Recruitment and Retention Report published by the HSE National Doctors Training and Planning (NDTP) unit shows that, typically, medical Interns leave Ireland following the intern year and return two to three years later to take up postgraduate training. The overall retention rate of medical interns is high with 80% of interns from the 2015 to 2019 cohorts returning to Ireland to take up an NCHD post in our health service. The NDTP data also indicates substantial improvements in the retention of doctors who have completed Higher Specialist Training. Of the 2019 cohort who completed Higher Specialist Training (HST), 78% were reported to be working in Ireland in either a public or private post in 2023. This increased to 82% in 2024. This happened in the context of large increases in the number of consultants posts available between 2021 and 2023 in Ireland.
Attracting and retaining Irish trained healthcare workers is an ongoing focus for the HSE, which includes initiatives such as:
• Targeted attraction and engagement strategies of Irish graduates who have travelled overseas.
• Further expansion of the HSE Career Hub, which currently engages with over 56k members weekly, providing job notifications, candidate support material, relocation supports, and providing engaging information on promotional pathways, to support both retention and recruitment.
• Collaboration with education and regulation partners, in a series of engagement initiatives with students, new graduates and those trained overseas to navigate and ease their recruitment and professional registration journey.
• Increased visibility of the HSE, as an employer of choice at career events, both nationally and internationally, including attendance at international career events to attract home Irish trained Doctors to consultant posts.
• Retention of existing workforce is a primary focus of the HSE. This is supported by a number of initiatives, including the recent launch of the retention toolkit which provides practical guidance and good practice on pre and post survey implementation stages. The toolkit includes signposting to a suite of resources to help identify and implement initiatives that foster a positive work environment, enhance employee engagement, and reduce turnover based on the survey findings. It is intended to be adaptable to the diverse needs of services and teams across the health and social care sector.
