A major expansion in the number of places available in medical education is set to be announced by Minister for Education Mary Hanafin this week.
Under the plan, 70 new undergraduate places will become available next month - with a further 110 places over the next three years.
The new expanded programme for undergraduates will run alongside new postgraduate training programmes in University College Dublin (UCD) and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI).
Under Ms Hanafin's plan, 16 new places will be available on the undergraduate course at NUI Galway from next month. University College Cork (UCC), Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and RCSI will each provide 14 new places and UCD will provide 12 additional places.
Meanwhile, the final round of figures released in advance of the Leaving Certificate results on August 16th show a 7 per cent increase in first-preference applications for nursing and medicine, indicating the possibility of increased points this year for both courses.
Total applications for nursing increased by 11 per cent and by over 4 per cent for medicine.
The continued popularity of medicine and nursing comes amid a fall in applications in the related fields of physiotherapy, pharmacy, dentistry and other healthcare courses.
Ms Hanafin's plan is part of a process designed to help reduce the pressure on CAO points for medicine, while providing much-needed additional personnel.
This year, the number of students applying for medicine is up 8 per cent despite lower numbers taking the exam. The increase in places is unlikely to lead to significantly lower CAO point levels for medicine, which requires in excess of 570 points. This is because of the large number of students with high points who want to do medicine.
Last year, just over 140 first-time Leaving Cert students secured places on medical courses, with others losing out to repeat Leaving Cert students and applicants from Northern Ireland and Britain.
At present, the Republic provides just 305 places in medical training - Northern Ireland provides almost as many for a much smaller population.
The new system will see the removal of the controversial cap which has limited the number of places available to Irish and EU students to 305 for almost 30 years.
The Hanafin plan will increase medical places for Irish and EU students over a four-year period from 305 to 725.
In providing 70 additional places, the Minister is essentially "buying back" places in medical schools which were previously available to non-EU students.
