Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the fact the Minister has put on the record a commitment to afford due regulation and recognition of counsellors and psychotherapists within a reasonable time. I hope it will be realised within a reasonable period. He has stated it is in the interest of the patient, the public and the profession. Only a month has elapsed since we last addressed this legislation.

Has there been any progress that the Minister can share with us in relation to the 12 boards that must be established across the 12 professions listed in the legislation? I recall that on Second Stage of this legislation we were talking very low numbers indeed in terms of progress towards the establishment of the registration boards. The reason the legislation had to be introduced in the first place was so the Minister would be in a position to appoint professional members to the council until such time as they were established. I ask for an update in that regard.

I use the area of speech and language therapy as an example but this would apply across each of the areas covered in this legislation. There is a significant number of highly qualified speech and language therapists, many of whom are being forced to leave our shores. They are available to take work and the demand is most certainly there, as all voices in this committee have highlighted time and again, as did the Minister, Deputy Reilly, in his previous role. Is there any light at the end of the tunnel on lifting the embargo on recruitment in order to provide jobs at home for highly qualified young speech and language therapists and to meet the identified demand right across the State? It is an appropriate opportunity to raise the matter and to ask whether the Minister can give us any hope that this matter will be addressed in the short term.