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

I move amendment No. 55:

In page 136, between lines 28 and 29, to insert the following:

“Amendment of Health Act 2004

168. The Health Act 2004 is amended—

(a) in section 2, in subsection (1), by the insertion of the following definition: “ ‘Regulations of 2017’ means the European Union (Recognition of Professional Qualifications) Regulations 2017 (S.I. No. 8 of 2017);”,

and (b) by the insertion of the following section after section 10B: “Designation of Executive as competent authority under Directive 2005/36/EC for certain regulated health professions

10C. (1) (a) In this section—

‘Directive’ has the same meaning as in Regulation 3 of the Regulations of 2017;

‘regulated health profession (HSE)’ means a regulated profession relating to health or social care (other than an excluded regulated health profession) from amongst whose members the Executive recruits or appoints its employees or a class of its employees in their capacity as such members;

‘excluded regulated health profession’ means a regulated profession relating to health or social care which is regulated by—

(i) the Dentists Act 1985,

(ii) the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005,

(iii) the Pharmacy Act 2007,

(iv) the Medical Practitioners Act 2007,

(v) the Nurses and Midwives Act 2011, or

(vi) the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council (Establishment) Order 2000 (S.I. No. 109 of 2000).

(b) A word or expression that is used in this section and is also used in the Directive shall have in this section the same meaning as it has in the Directive.

(2) The Minister may, by order, designate the Executive as the competent authority in the State for the purposes of the Directive in relation to a regulated health profession (HSE) specified in the order.”.”.

The professional qualifications directive requires each member state to designate a competent authority for professions regulated for the purposes of the directive. The amendment gives the Minister for Health the power to designate the HSE as the competent authority to compare the equivalence of non-Irish qualifications to the qualifications of certain health professions which are not regulated on a statutory basis but which are regulated for the purposes of the EU professional qualifications directive. The Minister is currently the competent authority for these professions. The amendment being moved allows the Minister, by order, to designate the HSE as a competent authority for those professions for which it sets the qualifications required for the pursuit of that profession in the publicly funded health sector and which will not be subject to statutory regulation by CORU. The professions which currently come within the scope of the directive are those of audiologist and environmental health officer.