Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take amendments Nos. 31 and 55 together.

These amendments are technical in nature and relate to the sections of the Medical Practitioners Act 2007 and the Nurses and Midwives Act 2011 that enable the respective regulators to make rules. The Bill inserts a new subsection (15)(c) into section 20 of the Medical Practitioners Act 2007. This section deals with the membership, functions and procedures of committees of council and subcommittees of committees. The new subsection (15)(c) provides that subcommittees of the fitness to practise committee may perform any of the functions of that committee as if it were the fitness to practise committee. However, section 11 of the Medical Practitioners Act 2007, which sets out the power of the Medical Council to make rules, does not reflect the breadth of functions intended by the new subsection (15)(c). The Committee Stage amendment in the Seanad replaces the wording "different grounds founding a complaint" with "complaints referred to that Committee", which ensures that the regulator's powers to make rules for committee are consistent with the functions that are assigned to those committees. An identical amendment is being made to section 13 of the Nurses and Midwives Act 2011.

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