Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The important matter raised by Deputy Bacik is also of concern to me and to anybody who saw the "Prime Time" programme last night. The profession of psychology is not regulated. There was a time when very few professions in Ireland were regulated. It was just doctors, dentists and a few others. Over time, we have added to the number of professions that are regulated. We want to add psychology to the list of professions regulated by CORU. However, we have run into some real difficulties. There is no common education pathway or standards for entry to the profession. A public consultation was held in 2020 but no consensus arose from it. As recently as last August, the Minister for Health took up this matter again and wrote to the Psychologists Registration Board. The board provided recommendations to the Minister only last week, on 3 March. The Minister and his officials are going to consider these with a view to advancing this process as soon as we can.

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