Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 48:

In page 114, to delete lines 24 to 33 and substitute the following: “ “(11A) Paragraph (a) of subsection (11) shall not apply to the Fitness to Practise Committee except in relation to the Committee’s inquiry into a complaint the hearing of which under section 63 has commenced before the date of coming into operation of section 129 of the Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Act 2019.”,”.

Currently, both a nurse and a midwife are required to sit in on a preliminary proceedings committee, PPC, and the fitness to practise committee of the NMBI. This has caused operational problems for the regulator and, in some cases, has lengthened the time it takes for an inquiry to conclude. This section removes this requirement. Since the Bill was published, concerns were raised that the section, as drafted, might have unintended consequences for the composition of committees. Specific concerns were that neither a nurse nor a midwife might be required to sit on a committee and that a nurse might not sit on a committee inquiring into a nurse or a midwife for a midwife. Following further consideration and discussion with the regulator and the OPC, it is agreed that these concerns would be addressed by the removal of paragraph (11A)(a) in subsection (c) of section 129 and this amendment has been drafted accordingly.

When applied to the Bill and the existing Act, the net effect of the amendment is that there will be no change to the PPC and there will continue to be at least one nurse and one midwife on a preliminary proceedings committee and any subcommittee. There will be a change to the fitness to practise committee for inquiries and, beginning after the section comes into effect, there will be at least one nurse or one midwife on a fitness to practise committee or subcommittee and, where a nurse is being inquired into, a nurse must be on the committee and likewise for a midwife.

This amendment also introduces another key feature, which will assist the NMBI to process complaints more quickly. The Bill, as drafted, provides that the new streamlined committee structures will apply only to inquiries into complaints made after this section comes into effect. However, the amendment provides that the new provisions relating to fitness to practise composition will apply to complaints currently being examined but which have not yet reached the fitness to practise hearing stage, which is when a midwife or nurse would be included, as well as to the complaints made after the section has come into effect. These hearings are held towards the end of the inquiry and this amendment will, therefore, allow a large batch of complaints currently at the early or middle stages of investigation to be heard by the streamlined committee structure. Concluding these hearings as quickly as possible is in the interest of both the registrant and the complainant.