Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 4, to delete lines 18 and 19 and substitute the following:

“5. Section 31 of the Principal Act is amended—(a) in subsection (1), by the substitution of the following paragraph for paragraph (fa) (inserted by section 6(b) of the Act of 2012):".

Physiotherapists and physical therapists looking in will be glad to know that we are going to talk about physiotherapists and physical therapists now. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, these amendments, together with the other amendments to the Bill I am proposing, have been drafted by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. They address these three main issues that arose on Committee Stage. These three amendments propose to amend section 5 of the Bill to provide that the codes of professional conduct and ethics adopted by registration boards must specify that registrants act within the limits of their knowledge, skills, competence and experience. Regulation under the 2005 Act is primarily by way of registration and protection of professional titles.

The Act currently provides that each profession's code of professional conduct and ethics must specify the standards of conduct, performance and ethics expected of registrants. While the Act does not define scope of professional practice, the codes adopted by registration boards also oblige registrants to act within the limit of their knowledge, skills, competence and experience. Any breach of the code is defined in the Act as professional misconduct and would be liable to investigation and sanctions up to and including cancellation of registration under the Act's fitness to practise provisions. The amendments proposed would impose a statutory requirement on all registration bodies, including the Physiotherapists Registration Board, to include these restrictions in their codes. The amendment would in the interests of public protection underpin in primary legislation the current practice of registration boards.

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