Ms Deirdre Walsh:

I will start with Deputy O'Reilly's questions about the process. She touched on crisis pregnancy counselling and protection of title. The regulations are in effect already drafted, so once we get the approval, the Minister will sign them. Then we will go to the Public Appointments Service, PAS, to appoint the board. The appointment of the board starts a very extensive work programme. Generally speaking, for most professionals, the pattern to date has been that the work takes about two years between a board being appointed and it actually opening its register. Going back to Deputy Kelleher's point, it is a 13 person board on which sit six practitioners of the profession and a seven-person lay majority. The first element this board will look at is people's present qualifications and how they are registered. In effect, this is what is called grandparenting. We call it a transition period under the Act. The board, for each profession, will do work. It has the practitioners and the lay majority on board but will often commission work, talk to professional bodies and carry out research. It then comes to a point where it makes solid advice. On the issue of grandparenting, it comes back to the Minister via the council. The council may also have input into it. It comes back to the Minister with advice on the qualifications that would be set for grandparenting - this is for existing practitioners - but it is the Minister who then makes that element of the process. He decides, based on the board's advice. He can also input his own advice, obviously.