No medical school entry changes before 2008

ENTRY methods to medical school for Leaving Certificate students will not change for at least two years, despite a four-year-old Government commitment to ease pressure on school leavers trying to get onto these courses.

Under a €200 million plan announced by Education Minister Mary Hanafin and Health Minister Mary Harney yesterday, 160 extra places a year will be available to prospective doctors straight from school by 2010. They will have to have a minimum Leaving Certificate points score, to be set around 450, and sit an aptitude test.

Also from 2010, a further 240 additional places will be filled annually by degree holders, more than doubling the number of places for Irish and EU students on medicine courses to 725.

But no change to the selection method for school leavers is planned before 2008, meaning those hoping for places until then will need near-perfect Leaving Certificate grades.

Instead Ms Hanafin, who accepted there was almost unbearable pressure on students to achieve these scores, has asked experts who have already spent more than two years considering medical entry to come up with alternative proposals. She wants them to suggest measures for those entering fifth year in September to prepare for new entry methods in 2008.

But Fine Gael education spokesperson Olwyn Enright said the 2002 Programme for Government made a commitment to tackling the problem of high points needed for medicine.

"The lifetime of the Government ends in 2007, so that commitment is not being honoured. It is also important that a decision is made quickly for those students who are choosing their Leaving Certificate subjects in the next few months," she said.

Irish Medical Organisation president Dr Assam Ishtiaq accused the Government of dragging its feet on the extra places and said it could refund medical schools for loss of places available to fee-paying students as soon as next autumn. He also called for urgent funding for training places in general practice and surgical specialities to stem the flow of graduates going to other countries soon after qualifying.

Ms Hanafin stressed there was always a two-year lead in time for such changes so Leaving Certificate students know what they are preparing for. The working group will also examine if a student with 500 points would have an advantage over another with 450.

"If they find that huge numbers are suitable on the aptitude test, then they may give a weighting to the points as well," she added.

The task force, chaired by former NUI Galway president Prof Patrick Fottrell, must report back on an appropriate selection test and consider whether the 450 points cut-off they proposed to Government is appropriate.

More than one-in-six applicants for third-level courses achieved the score last year, compared to only 2% with the 560 minimum needed for medical degrees.

As well as lifting the 28-year-old cap of 305 medical school places for Irish and non-EU students, the package allows for graduate intake to medical schools from next year. The providers will be decided by the Higher Education Authority, which will also develop a test to evaluate candidates' suitability, with 60 places to be provided next year and a further 60 in each of the following three years.