Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies Colm Burke and Tully for affording me the opportunity to address the House on this important issue, which is of great concern to the parents involved and has a big impact on their children.

CORU was established under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 to protect the public by promoting high standards of professional conduct, education and training among health and social care professionals. CORU’s regulatory model is based on the protection of title. Once a profession has been regulated, it becomes a criminal offence to use a professional title if the person is not a CORU registrant. Each profession has its own independent registration board, which is provided with statutory powers to implement regulation for that profession. Registration boards are responsible for establishing a register, approving and monitoring education and training programmes, and setting standards. Each board has 13 members and a lay majority.

Regulating a new profession is a complex and lengthy process, requiring careful consideration and preparatory work to ensure it will be effective in protecting the public. Psychology has been uniquely challenging due to the diversity of its specialisms and the fact there is no common education pathway or standards for entry to the profession. Entry to practice as a psychologist is currently defined by specialist postgraduate education. By establishing a common minimum threshold for entry to a single register for psychology, the Psychologists Registration Board, PSRB, would be creating a generalist role of psychologist, which currently does not exist. This would have significant implications, including on educational pathways leading to qualification.

The PSRB, established in 2017, has worked assiduously to develop standards of proficiency and criteria for education and training for the profession. These standards and criteria were the subject of a public consultation in 2020 that revealed significant concerns and a lack of consensus among the various psychology specialisms regarding how to proceed with regulation. Key areas of disagreement relate to the minimum level of qualification to be required, appropriate placement settings and the number of placement hours.

Having reached an impasse, CORU wrote to the Minister for Health on behalf of the PSRB in 2021 seeking guidance on how to proceed. The Minister replied to CORU in August 2022 requesting that the PSRB consider a dual-stream and phased approach to regulating the profession, which would allow the PSRB to prioritise regulating psychology specialisms that present the greatest risk to public safety, while simultaneously continuing to work towards the long-term objective of protecting the title of psychologist. On 3 March 2023, CORU wrote to the Minister on behalf of the PSRB with its recommendations for which specialisms should be prioritised for regulation. The Minister for Health is reviewing these recommendations with a view to progressing this work as quickly as possible.

Owing to the complexity of the work the PSRB must undertake, I am not, regrettably, in a position to say with any degree of accuracy when the profession of psychology will be fully regulated. I understand the PSRB will require a number of years to complete this work, but the Minister for Health and the Government remain fully committed to delivering regulation of the profession. I note the points Deputy Tully raised in respect of general care provided by the HSE, and what Deputy Colm Burke outlined in depth regarding CORU.

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