Seventy extra undergraduate places have been created for medical students this year as part of a Government reform of third-level education.
It is the first stage of a €200 million reform package that will see the number of places in the State's five medical schools rise from 305 to 725 over the next four years.
Under Minister for Education and Science Mary Hanafin's plan, 16 new places will be available to Irish and EU students on the undergraduate course at NUI Galway from next month.
University College Cork (UCC), Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland will each provide 14 new places, and UCD will provide 12 additional places.
However, to accommodate the additional places for Irish and EU students in 2006, the five schools will reduce their intake of non-EU students this year by 54.
Minister for Education and Science Mary Hanafin said the package will also see the introduction of a graduate entry programme from next year, a new system of selection for entry to undergraduate medicine that is likely to begin in 2008 and a number of major curriculum and clinical teaching improvements.
The number of students applying for medicine through the CAO is up 8 per cent. The increase in places is unlikely to lead to significantly lower CAO point levels for medicine, which requires over 570 points.
