Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 42:

In page 13, line 20, to delete “application.”.” and substitute the following: “application.

(10) A person living in direct provision who has qualified and practiced as

a dentist outside of this jurisdiction may also apply for registration.”.”.

These amendments all have effectively the same purpose, namely, that for this range of medical specialties, doctors, midwives, nurses etc., we make sure that qualified people who are living in direct provision would be able to apply for registration and be registered where there is currently a problem that those who have qualified outside the State and may be in direct provision are not eligible to be registered. This is a time when we are putting out an appeal for anyone who possibly can assist to do so. This appeal is not meant narrowly for people who have Irish citizenship or who are originally from Ireland. It is for anyone who can assist and we have well qualified and talented people who could be assisting us who are living in direct provision. These amendments would seek to make sure they can register. If the Minister can give an assurance that this will be done in a different way, I am happy to accept that assurance.

While I am speaking on the question of direct provision, we need to urgently address the real health danger posed by crammed direct provision centres where self-isolation is not possible. I understand the latest proposal from the Government is that an off-site isolation centre will be set up on a test basis but it does not seem to me to be an ultimately satisfactory solution. We need to clear these centres, as we need to clear the homeless hubs, and get people into vacant properties.

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