Graduate doctors could be encouraged to stay in Ireland through a new State-backed loan, which would be offered on the condition recipients go on to work in the Irish health service.
Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless said he is considering “incentives” to try to keep Irish medical graduates in Ireland, because of “a concern that we lose a lot of our best graduates overseas”.
Lawless said he is considering the merits of offering the loan to graduate entry medical students on a pilot basis, before possibly expanding it to other medical disciplines if it is popular.
The Minister was speaking at the unveiling of 1,100 new third-level healthcare course places, which will cost €28.5 million.
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He said there is high demand for medical skills in Ireland, but also touched on concerns the State loses many of its most talented graduates.
“They go to Australia, they go to the Middle East and other places. And yes, that’s the rite of passage,” he said, adding that his sister emigrated and now works as a GP in Australia. “Many, many families will have a similar story,” said Lawless.
Under existing bursaries, nurses and medical professionals can get a form of a bonus if they stay in the Irish health service after graduation.
“I would be interested in exploring how we can roll that out more widely as a tool that covers more professions,” Lawless said, singling out graduate entry medicine.
“Traditionally, in graduate entry medicine the fees are quite significant. There were commercial loans available and they have been withdrawn by the providers; Bank of Ireland, I think, was the primary one. They’re not doing it anymore.
“I wonder is it possible that there could be some kind of State-backed loan to graduate entry medical students, contingent on them remaining in Ireland for a number of years post graduation.”
The Minister said such a measure would help students take on an expensive course and encourage doctors to stay in Ireland.
“I think that would be a benefit to our workforce and I think that would be a reasonably good pilot to do it on,” he said.
“If it worked, if it was popular, if it worked out for students, we could thrash out all the other wrinkles and maybe that might translate to a wider adoption of a similar model later on.”
In 2022, Bank of Ireland ended its specific loan for graduate entry medical students, which was the last loan of its kind in the State.
Some medical schools have raised concerns that this reduces the demographic of people who can study medicine in Ireland.
