The Minister for Education has said he supports recommendations for major reform of the entry requirements for medical education.
Mr Dempsey made a statement in response to recommendations by an expert working group chaired by Prof Patrick Fottrell, a former president of NUI Galway.
Education Minister Noel Dempsey
"Currently huge pressures are being placed on students in the second level system as a result of the extremely high Leaving Certificate points required for entry to medicine - for example, this year students need at least 570 points to study medicine," Mr Dempsey said.
He said the proposals by the Fottrell Group would address the issue. They would also go some way to easing the pressures on Leaving Certificate students by proposing a graduate entry scheme by which students with an honours BA degree will be eligible to study medicine.
Mr Dempsey said he hoped the changes to the method of entry to medical education would be introduced as early as the 2006/2007 academic year.
Under the recommendations, Leaving Cert performance will no longer be the sole selection method for undergraduate entry to medicine.
The current system, which also allows medical schools to take an unlimited number of fee-paying non-EU students, but a limited number of Irish students, has been widely criticised.
The Fottrell Group recommends anyone opting for medicine who achieves 450 Leaving Certificate points would be eligible for consideration. However, places would be allocated based on performance in a separate aptitude test.
Graduates of honours BA programmes would also be eligible for entry, irrespective of the academic discipline in which their degrees were awarded. Again, the selection method would be based on aptitude test.
The group also recommends that a quota of places be reserved in each medical school for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
"These recommendations provide for an altogether fairer mechanism for selection for entry to medicine. They will provide wider opportunities for students to enter the profession, with a choice of going direct from the Leaving Certificate or delaying that decision to a later age," Mr Dempsey said.
"This approach will provide for a more diverse background of entrants to medicine. It can impact extremely positively on both the second-level education system and the medical profession as well as benefiting students themselves through greater choice and less pressurised entry requirements."
Mr Dempsey said he would now establish a working group, as recommended by the Fottrell report, with a view to having the measures in place within the target timeframe.