Madam, - I see the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, plans to broaden access to the study of medicine by instituting a system whereby medicine is studied as a postgraduate course after completion of a "general science" undergraduate degree (The Irish Times, August 19th and 20th).
While the system as it stands does limit admission to medical school to an élite few who perform exceedingly well in the Leaving Cert examination, it does have the marked benefit of being completely egalitarian in economic terms. If you put in the work and get the points you can go to medical school.
If an American-type system (where an undergraduate degree must be completed prior to studying medicine) were to be instituted here, who would pay for the education of our future doctors?
Currently the Exchequer pays all undergraduate tuition fees. If the system is changed, however, and training to become a doctor takes 10 years of college education (four years undergraduate, six years postgraduate) will the Exchequer still be willing to foot the bill?
And if not, won't the Minister really be copper-fastening the medical profession in Ireland at the preserve of the monied classes and not actually broadening access to it? - Yours, etc.,
OWEN CORRIGAN,
South Richmond Street,
Dublin 2.
Madam, - It is beginning to appear that the aim of the proposed changes in the method of entry to our medical schools is to specifically disadvantage a sector of our society - women. If that is so I will strongly oppose it. Whatever the faults of the CAO, at least its results are transparent.
If the aim is to allow students take a general undergraduate degree before transferring to postgraduate schools for disciplines such as medicine, dentistry and pharmacy, as in the United States, then it is worth considering. But apart from being educational what is the proposed value of this undergraduate degree if these students go no further?
It is to be hoped that selection for the various postgraduate schools will be on academic merit, the method least open to bias of which I can think. But what if women are over-represented again? In 2002 the highly competitive foundation and non-foundation scholarships in medicine in Trinity College taken after three years' study were awarded to nine Irish women and one Chinese man!
I hasten to add that this was an exceptional year. In the results over 10 years, men and women were represented equally. We need to be sure that any changes will not make our system inequitable for anyone. - Yours, etc.,
Senator MARY HENRY, MD,
Seanad Éireann,
Dublin 2.