Medical Council publishes research on doctors who renewed their registration but were not clinically active in Ireland

o Medical Council’s latest workforce data focuses on doctors registered with the Medical Council who are either working abroad or not clinically active in 2024

Friday, 19th December 2025: The Medical Council has today published research on the medical workforce registered with the Medical Council in 2024.

The Supplementary Workforce Report bulletin focuses on two cohorts of doctors who renewed, or retained their place on the Register but were not clinically active in Ireland in 2024:

• Doctors who were clinically active outside of Ireland only (abroad only)
• Doctors who were not clinically active at all (neither in Ireland or abroad)

It is a supplementary bulletin to the main Medical Workforce Intelligence Report, published earlier this year. The Medical Workforce Intelligence Report analyses the data collected during the 2024 annual retention process. The 2024 report focused on the clinically active medical workforce in Ireland, including the quantitative analyses of demographics and divisional status and details on employment, practice, medical disciplines and specialities.

Earlier this year, the Medical Council published supplementary bulletins which provide an overview of doctors who joined the Register in 2024, and doctors who left the Register in 2024. However, doctors may choose to retain their place on the Register and not actively practise medicine in Ireland.

In 2024, 26,591 doctors retained their place on the Medical Council’s Register. 21.2% (5,628) of these doctors were either practising medicine abroad only (4,160) or not actively practising medicine (1,468).

Key highlights from the bulletin include:

Doctors who retained their place on the Register and were clinically active outside of Ireland only:

• The mean age of this group was 43.7 years, and a slight majority were between 35 and 44 years of age (28.5%). Just over two thirds were male (67.8%).
• Just under one in five of this cohort had an Irish qualification (19.1%, equating to 796 doctors), while 23.0% (956 doctors) qualified in the EU or UK and 57.9% (2,408 doctors) had international qualifications from outside of Ireland, the EU and the UK.
• The majority of Irish graduates were working in Australia (29.6%) or the UK (24.4%), while the majority of graduates from the EU and UK were working in the UK (33.9%) and the majority of international graduates were working in Pakistan (25.9%) or the UK (17.8%).

Doctors who retained their place on the Register and were not clinically active (in Ireland or abroad):

• The mean age of doctors who retained their registration but reported not practising medicine was 45.2 years and the majority were either in the younger group of 34 and younger (34.7%) or the older group of 55 and older (29.5%).
• There was a majority of females (61.2%), and most doctors were registered on the General Division (61.4%).
• Almost half of these doctors obtained their qualification in Ireland (48.6%), and from those who had an international qualification (37.6%), the majority obtained their primary medical degree in Pakistan (43.4%).

Dr Maria O’Kane, CEO of the Medical Council, welcomed the publication of the bulletin today: “The Medical Council’s Workforce Intelligence Reports highlight priority areas for supporting and retaining doctors in Ireland.

“By sharing our data and insights, we aim to support the workforce planning already underway to retain and attract doctors back to Ireland. A shortage of doctors impacts not only on patient safety, but the wellbeing of doctors in their day-to-day work. Continued investment in training, recruitment, and health system resourcing is essential.

“The report and recommendations published last year by the National Taskforce on Non-Consultant Hospital Doctors has already resulted in improvements in these areas across the health sector, and this is encouraging.

“The Medical Council is committed to supporting doctors who have left the Register to work abroad and now wish to return. Following a significant project this year, applications to restore to the Register now take less than two weeks to process.”

Dr Suzanne Crowe, President of the Medical Council said, “At this time of year, many doctors are returning home from overseas to be with their families. Their journeys remind us of how international the medical workforce has become.

“Irish doctors have long travelled abroad for experience and training – I went to Australia myself – but we want to see them coming home.

“At a time when retaining doctors in Ireland is so important, it is essential that we seek to understand what motivates doctors to renew their registration but opt to travel and work overseas. These insights are critical in shaping a sustainable, well-supported medical workforce that can meet patient needs into the future.”

Dr Bernadette Rock, Head of Research and Regulatory Data Insights, Medical Council, added: "For the first time in 2024, doctors who reported working exclusively abroad were asked to indicate their country of practise. This report confirms that a proportion of doctors on the Register are not currently practising in Ireland.

“Insights from doctors are critical in informing a sustainable, well-supported medical workforce and promoting patient safety. These reports are just one important aspect in our wider workforce planning to meet future patient needs.

“We thank the doctors for their contributions and engagement in answering workforce questions on their Annual Retention form.”

The Medical Council’s Supplementary Workforce Report bulletin on Doctors clinically active abroad only, and Doctors not clinically active is available here.