Áine Brady (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

I am responding to this matter on behalf of the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney. I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and for giving me the opportunity to update the House on the ongoing regulatory programme undertaken by the Department of Health and Children.

The Health and Social Care Professionals Act was passed by the Oireachtas in 2005. The Act provides for the establishment of a system of statutory registration for 12 health and social care professions. The 12 professions to be regulated under the Act are clinical biochemists, dieticians, medical scientists, occupational therapists, orthoptists, physiotherapists, podiatrists, psychologists, radiographers, social care workers, social workers, and speech and language therapists.

The structure of the system of statutory registration will comprise a registration board for each of the professions to be registered, a health and social care professionals council with overall responsibility for the regulatory system and a committee to deal with disciplinary matters.

As a first step in the implementation of the system of statutory registration, the Minister for Health and Children launched the Health & Social Care Professionals Council in March 2007. The chief executive officer of the council was appointed in 2008 and additional senior administrative staff took up duty with the council in late 2009. The council must establish a registration board for each of the 12 professions currently covered by the Act. These appointments, and further progress in the establishment of a suitable organisational structure, will greatly assist the council in its ongoing work in preparing for the establishment of the individual registration boards. Arrangements for the establishment of the first of these registration boards are currently being finalised. The council is currently working to put in place the necessary structures for registration, education and fitness to practise for the 12 health and social care professions designated in the Act and it is hoped to bring additional registration boards on stream in late 2010.

The Health & Social Care Professionals Council will enable health and social care professionals to practice in a regulated, controlled and safe environment and in a manner which will ensure the provision of high-quality interventions, meeting the challenges of increasingly complex and evolving care for service users. Health and social care professionals will be facilitated in ensuring responsible and accountable practices while providing the highest level of patient care and service.

While the proposed system of statutory registration applies, in the first instance, to 12 health and social care professions, the legislation empowers the Minister for Health and Children to include, on the basis of specific criteria, additional health and social care professions in the regulatory system over time, as appropriate.

A detailed examination is required of the degree to which such groups conform to the criteria included in section 4 of the 2005 Act governing the addition of further professions into the system, including the extent to which the profession has a defined scope of practice and applies a distinct body of knowledge; the extent to which the profession has established itself, including whether there is at least one professional body representing a significant proportion of the profession's practitioners; the existence of defined routes of entry into the profession and of independently assessed entry qualifications; the profession's commitment to continuous professional development; the degree of risk to the health, safety or welfare of the public from incompetent, unethical or impaired practice of the profession; and any other factors that the Minister for Health and Children considers relevant.

The priority for the Health & Social Care Professionals Council is to establish statutory registration for the 12 designated health and social care professions in the first instance. The issue of inclusion of other grades, such as psychotherapist and counsellor, within the scope of statutory registration will be considered after the initial designated 12 professional grades have been fully dealt with.

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