Johnny Mythen (Wexford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin welcomes this Bill, which we see as a positive initiative that should create a more professional and protective system for the public and staff alike. We also welcome the removal of the bureaucratic anomalies that prohibit people who hold British medical degrees from availing of medical intern posts and establishing a route to registration for the non-consultant doctors on the general division of international doctors. However, I encourage the Minister of State to address the outflow of our own qualified doctors who are, worryingly, emigrating in large numbers. For example, by May of this year, Australia had issued 402 work visas to qualified Irish doctors.

In my region, 25% of GPs are destined to retire within the next five years. We have five locums in place and these circumstances are replicated throughout most other regions. Many urban doctors are not able to take on the numbers of patients presenting, many of whom are elderly people who are left without access to family doctors for weeks due to the retirement of neighbouring GPs. Many rural areas are left without any doctors at all. I ask that immediate action be taken by the Minister on this alarming public health issue before it becomes a national emergency.

I welcome that the title of "social care worker" will become legally protected on 30 November 2025. It is only right and fitting this should happen. As we know, social care work involves work with the most vulnerable people in our society, from people with disabilities and the homeless to women in prisons and their children and those living in poverty. I am glad these workers will finally be recognised as a cohesive professional partner with their fellow social workers.

This Bill should also provide professional regulation of the home care sector. This part of the sector is fundamentally connected and in many cases overlaps with the work carried out by the social workers and care social workers of Ireland. Some 35,000 home care hours are not being delivered. At the start of the year, 600 families were waiting for home supports in County Wexford. I ask the Minister to establish a national database on respite availability that would give a comprehensive practical view on the age, details and specific requirements of each region. The key public aim of the registration of medical, health and social care professionals is to protect the public by promoting high standards of professional conduct, education, training and competence through statutory registration structures and processes. Professional regulators are important and part of the reason we have such a high and well-regarded standard of healthcare professionals in Ireland.

There is no doubt that the level of professionalism experienced in care provided by our healthcare professionals is outstanding and we saw this in particular during the Covid-19 pandemic. It is for this reason that the pandemic employment bonus is so bitterly disappointing. Nine months on, workers are still waiting on their well-deserved reward. The complete lack of a controlled and planned roll-out of the bonus by the Minister and Government is unacceptable. Will the Minister of State outline a definite timeline setting out when all front-line workers will be paid?

Sinn Féin welcomes the Bill and sees it as a vital part of protecting the public interest, especially in the sphere of social work and care workers having to meet the same safety standards as all other CORU-registered professionals.

We welcome the new route this Bill provides for registration of international doctors and plead with the Minister to accept the importance of the points raised on the emigration of our doctors and the significant numbers of our family doctors who will be retiring in the not-too-distant future.

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