Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the members for their supportive comments. I express my appreciation for the work done by journalist Ellen Coyle, Catherine Sands and by a colleague of mine, Sinead Ahern, who, in a difficult way, went undercover to hear exactly what "information" was being imparted.

To pick up the point made by Deputy Durkan, can one imagine a vulnerable woman, not knowing what to do, being told that if she has an abortion she is likely to abuse any children she may have in the future? It is shocking. We need to ensure that any advice or purported health supports are given objectively, truthfully and factually.

In terms of how this will work, we looked at both the 1995 Act and the 2005 Act to see which we could address by way of amendment. The 2005 Act looks at how to regulate the newest categories of health and social care professionals. There are a range of new health and social care professionals alongside the traditional doctors and nurses who, for generations, have been regulated in what they can do. In terms of Deputy Kelleher's point about GPs or nurses giving advice, they have professional standards and oversight. They have a fitness to practise procedure and any complaint can be properly dealt with by their colleagues. It is not that category of people that now need to be regulated, it is people who purport to be counsellors giving objective information through counselling agencies.

At the core of what Deputy Kelleher and Deputy Murphy O'Mahony asked is whether this approach will be watertight. I do not know the answer to that. That is why I have been engaging with the Department of Health. This aims to regulate a profession. It may be possible to get around this if a person does not set him or herself up to be a counsellor and states he or she is not providing information, . People will at least be alert that they are not going to a professional counsellor if they are not regulated.

Deputy Kelleher asked about co-operation. I have absolutely no objective other than to get this job done. If there is an easy way of getting it done, I am all for it. As Deputy Durkan pointed out, it would be really good if this could be done by way of statutory instrument that would not require legislation. The Minister is working on that. We need to ensure that it is comprehensive and watertight to extend the categories through statutory instrument, which the Minister has the power to do.

Deputy Murphy O'Mahony asked about the policing of this. All the new categories of health care and social care professionals are regulated by the overarching new registration authority, CORU. The idea is that a person captured by the 2005 Act will be subject to registration and regulation by a statutory agency.

I think I have touched upon all questions that were put. I am interested in hearing the views of the Department and the Minister. My only objective and my encouragement to the committee members is to ensure that this is not put on the long-finger. I do not believe that is the intention of the Minister. Hopefully, before the summer break we will have draft statutory instruments before this committee for consideration.