Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to say a few words on the Bill. I welcome the changes it brings to the Health and Social Care Professionals Act. Obviously, the amalgamation of the 12 registered bodies under the one umbrella and under the one consistent regulatory code of practice with the same guides of quality and consistency in coming months is very welcome. The purpose of the body is to protect the public by promoting high standards of professional conduct through education, training and competence among registrants of designated professions. That will ultimately result in a better and consistent approach of service across all the professions for the public, which is welcome.

I wish to talk about one specific change. Subsuming the Opticians Board into the Health and Social Care Professionals Council is very welcome. However, one of the changes in updating the previous Act, which is 50 years old, does not quite make sense to me or to the professionals. They have asked me to represent them today, which I am doing.

The practice that will come into play if the Bill, as it stands, is passed will mean that opticians will be involved in the process of dispensing glasses right from the very beginning where patients come in, get their eyes tested, get a prescription and have their glasses made and presented. This continues right up the point where a patient leaves the shop and pays for their glasses. Their concern is that no other profession is quite as restrictive as that. I can go to a doctor in the morning, get a diagnosis of a sore throat, and then go out and pay the lady on reception the 50 quid I have to give her for the privilege for being there. That is the current practice in our opticians and the practice they would like to see remain.

I am not sure what the benefit is of having the legislation as drafted which ensures that the optician is there from the very beginning of the process right up to the writing of the cheque for the glasses at the end. I ask the Minister of State to consider changing that so that the receptionist in the optician's practice can take the final payment and hand over the product at the end. That would obviously allow the opticians more time to conduct the eye tests and carry out the consultations with patients, as is their wish.

Otherwise, I am very supportive of the Bill. It will offer a consistency and equality of approach across a wide variety of professions that we do not currently have. Deputy O'Reilly spoke about dieticians, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and suicide counsellors all being involved and brought under the one umbrella. I do not want to be disparaging to any of those people but because there is a potential inconsistency in the quality of care provided, that will now be changed and the regulatory processes will apply to all and one.

I am happy to support this Bill, with the possible exception of asking the Minister of State to consider again the amendment that potentially could be made to free up or loosen the restrictions on opticians.

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