Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Is that okay? I am fine to discuss it now but this is very much covered by amendments Nos. 4 and 5. The proposed approach is that the CORU will open the period of registration from November and there will be a two-year period when social care workers can register. There are a few different routes to registration. There are competency-based exams; the professional qualifications which are contained in the schedule where there are now 30 courses which are now covered and understood by CORU to be the courses; and there is also this grandfathering, which goes to Deputy Burke’s point where there is a list of qualifying criteria. I think this is in amendment No. 4 or 5. One of the criteria would be a letter from an employer or a previous employer but critically against very clear guidelines that will be set out by CORU. It is not just an employer saying whatever it wants. CORU can also decide whether it is satisfied that any individual employer is legitimate, or whatever the right word might be. There is this two-year period where work experience, according to a set of guidelines that CORU will issue to employers and only for employers that CORU deems appropriate will be able to grandfather across. When that grandfathering period is over then that is that. You will need the other criteria to kick in like having one of the qualifications.