It is open to Irish and other EU students deprived of places in medical schools in the Republic to mount a legal challenge to current practices which restrict the number of places on offer to them, a lecturer at Trinity College, Dublin, has said.
Dr Seán Barrett said the places of these students were being "sold" to non-EU students. "The policy thus reduces the intellectual standards of Irish medical schools by discriminating against EU students with high qualifications and in favour of non-EU students with income and wealth."
He said the policy was "open to legal challenge on the grounds of discrimination" against EU students in general, and Irish students in particular. Dr Barrett makes his comments in the current edition of the Irish Banking Review.