Dr. Tony Holohan:

Yes. Regulation would effect a set of arrangements whereby the nature of the content, obligations, accountability and oversight of any given profession would be set out with substantial clarity. It is not just a list of designated individuals but, rather, contains a significant amount of detail. Substantial detail in terms of scope of practice has been set out in some of the more recent work in regard to regulated professions as part of CORU. The relationship of that scope of practice to the practice of other practitioners would be worked out and negotiated in great detail before ultimately being set out in legislation or legal frameworks under legislation. It would have to have regard to the level and standards of education and training and so on, but we currently have no arrangements in this country in that regard and we, as an organisation, have little formal understanding or knowledge of them at this point. All of those kinds of details would be specified for any profession that had to be brought to and through a system of regulation, just as they are for the medical and nursing professions and those which have been regulated for a long period.