Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Dan Neville for raising the issue and giving me an opportunity to update the House on the ongoing programme of regulation of health and social care professionals being undertaken by the Department of Health. The regulation of the 14 professions currently designated under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005, including the optical professions, is being implemented on a phased basis as the registration board and register for each profession is established. To date, eight registration boards have been set up. The registration boards for the remaining designated professions will be established between now and 2016. In addition, the regulation of the optical professions will transfer from the Opticians Act 1956 to the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 before the end of this year.

Regulation under the 2005 Act is primarily by way of the statutory protection of professional titles, confining their use solely to persons granted registration. The structure of the system of statutory regulation comprises registration boards for the professions to be regulated, a committee structure to deal with disciplinary matters and a Health and Social Care Professionals Council with overall responsibility for the regulatory system. From a public protection viewpoint, a crucial milestone in the regulation of health and social care professions in Ireland was the introduction on 31 December last of the 2005 Act's fitness to practice regime which is similar to that applicable to doctors, nurses and midwives.

In relation to the question of regulating counselling and psychotherapy, the current position is that, while the profession or professions of counsellor and psychotherapist are not specifically designated under the 2005 Act, there are various regulatory controls on many counsellors and psychotherapists operating in Ireland. The profession of psychologist, for example, is a designated profession under the 2005 Act, which means that those psychologists who are counsellors and-or psychotherapists will in time be regulated under the Act. A psychologist registration board is due to be established this year and will be an additional source of advice on the question of regulating counselling and psychotherapy in the interest of protecting the public. Psychiatrists, some of whom practice psychotherapy, are regulated under the Medical Practitioners Act 2007. Also, counsellor therapists working in the publicly funded health sector are required to have the minimum qualifications set by the Health Service Executive under the Health Act 2004.

The previous Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly, wrote to the Health and Social Care Professionals Council last year seeking advice on the question of specifically designating counsellors and psychotherapists under the 2005 Act. A number of issues require clarification and there are strong differences of opinion on these issues among the various professional bodies representing counsellors and psychotherapists in Ireland. The main questions to be resolved include whether counselling and psychotherapy should be treated as one or two professions for the purposes of regulation, the title or titles of the profession or professions to be protected and the minimum qualifications that would be required. The readiness and compatibility of the professions for designation under the 2005 Act also need to be determined. The council's detailed report on the matter has been received in my Department in recent weeks and is being examined carefully by officials with a view to deciding the next steps.

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