Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I propose to discuss Seanad amendments Nos. 51, 52 and 62 together.

Sections 88 and 89 of the Medical Practitioners Act set out the duty of the Medical Council in respect of education and training for medical qualifications. They require the Medical Council to approve programmes of training and the bodies which deliver the training. However, while the Act is explicit that the council may refuse to approve a body as a body which may deliver undergraduate or postgraduate training programmes, the Act does not explicitly provide for the council to refuse to approve an individual training programme. A similar issue arises in section 85 of the Nurses and Midwives Act in respect of the training of nurses and midwives. This is problematic for both regulators in that while they can attach conditions to a programme, they do not have the express power to refuse to approve a training programme which does not meet the required standard. Both the Medical Council and the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland have identified this as a weakness to their respective Acts and accordingly these technical amendments give both regulators the express power to refuse to approve training programmes.

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