James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his guidance. A concern has been raised by the Irish Association of Physicists in Medicine, which has great knowledge of these practices, in regard to registration being a permanent and once-off process without any subsequent checks, renewals or inspections. Once a practitioner is registered, that is it. In any circumstance, if a test must be met and a person does so but then no longer has to worry about it, it is easy for practices and standards to subsequently slip or compliance levels to fall. The concern is that there is merit in requiring a renewal of the licence or registration or an audit, check or some kind of renewal process. There was previously an EPA system for licence renewal but, if I am reading the legislation correctly, that will be dropped and the registration will be a one-off. When the EPA was doing those licence checks, it was difficult for it to get evidence of compliance. It seems somewhat paradoxical that we are taking away the requirement to look for evidence of compliance in a situation where sometimes there is difficulty in getting such evidence. We are giving practitioners a free run in terms of there being once-off registration and that not having to be revisited or renewed when there has previously been difficulty in getting evidence of compliance. I raise this in the context of the Bill and the registration process but it seems good practice that such registration would have to be renewed periodically or revisited. I am interested in the Minister's views in that regard.