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. “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 There were commercial loans available and they have been withdrawn by the providers; Bank of Ireland, I think, was the primary one.

Source: The Irish Times February 17, 2026 15:01 UTC