Ms Ginny Hanrahan:

If I could come in there, we have regulated ten professions for the first time. Grandparenting allows people with older qualifications to be included. For example, we really have to take into consideration the 40 years of people having been working. Forty years ago, the qualification in my case was a diploma, whereas it is now a degree. An allowance has to be made for that where people have the experience to work, and that is what grandparenting is about.

We have made a change in the legislation that is going through the Oireachtas to allow us to include two years of grandparenting. In most cases, on the day on which the register opens, the grandparenting provision applies only where the applicant has worked for two of the previous five years and we can take into account the older qualification because the gate is coming down. For social care, however, because of the challenges and because this is the first time there is regulation and the first time the courses have been reviewed, the grandparenting period will be extended to 30 November 2025, which means that where graduates come off courses that, as Dr. Walsh mentioned, might not have gone through the review, those graduates will be nonetheless able to apply to get onto the register.

It is a very fair system. In summary, we are putting in the new standard, the gate is coming down and courses will have to meet the new standard, but we are making an allowance for older qualifications and acknowledging people’s experience in working as social care workers.