Batt O'Keeffe (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 11:

In page 6, between lines 27 and 28, to insert the following:

""poor professional performance", in relation to a registered professional, means any failure of the registered professional to meet the standards of competence that may reasonably be expected of registered professionals practising the profession concerned;".

This amendment becomes necessary following amendments made on Committee Stage that added the term "poor professional performance" to the scope of behaviour to be regulated by the professional conduct committee. Before the Committee Stage amendment, the scope of the section was confined to professional misconduct. It is now necessary to add this term in section 24 so that in any hearing of an appeal before the High Court, the evidence of any person of standing in the architectural profession may be admitted on what constitutes poor professional performance, as is the case with professional misconduct. The two terms are defined in section 2, which deals with interpretation.

These amendments transfer the definitions of "poor professional performance" and "professional misconduct" regarding a registered professional from section 58 of the Bill as inserted on Committee Stage to section 1, as the definitions are required in the Bill, otherwise than in Part 6.

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