Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have come across a number of conflicting situations that can arise where professionals may have competence or recognition in another field that is not their own area and it may require specific qualification. To put it crudely, say an engineer in construction may not be appropriate even though he or she might have a good grasp of the subject but they do not have a qualification in that area. What do they have to do if they want to get the benefit of the provisions in amendment No. 5? It states “the person holds a professional qualification that, in the opinion of the Social Care Workers Registration Board, is sufficiently relevant to the profession of social care worker....”. In other words, I would think one would need to have majored in the area in question in order to be able to say that one’s opinion is superior or equal to all others. That is often not the case outside of health but it is the health qualification that I refer to here.