Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 30 November 2022
Select Committee on Education and Skills
Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Supplementary)
Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for leading that. The building has been an eyesore. Seeing new life going in there has been great. I have two final matters to raise. Quality and Qualifications Ireland, QQI, is proving difficult to deal with. I hold a weekly clinic with the Ukrainian population in my constituency. In the past month, two fully-qualified dentists have come to me. They are graduates of Kyiv University. They have excellent English. They want to practise their profession and QQI is telling them that their qualifications do not perfectly align with QQI. I have encountered this with other high-end professions, including some in the medical realm. We could really use these people here at the moment. We have our own shortages in the health system. These people are willing to fall into line and play a role but QQI sends them back blunt emails saying that these qualifications do not perfectly align. The question is a bit of a curveball, but I ask if somebody in the Department or Minister's office could talk to QQI to dissect what modules and how many years of training people have done. I am sure a mouth in Ukraine is similar to a mouth in Ireland and that dental treatment in Ukraine is of a similar standard to that in Ireland. As a layperson, I cannot understand how there could be any differences. It is an issue with red tape. I would love for QQI to be contacted and for that red tape to be unravelled to allow this to happen.