Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I do not think any of us want to go around the safeguards at all. We are addressing this because it could arise as a practical difficulty in the future, given the scarcity of appropriately qualified medical professionals. There must be thousands of people working in this country who are trained abroad, particularly in the UK. I am not aware that they have to go through registration here. Very often, specialists from the UK, including Northern Ireland, would be brought in to advise on different things, and we can think of examples of particular people who have been brought in for that purpose. There is a recognition, certainly between Ireland and the UK, in regard to qualifications and areas of expertise. If people were to come in as advisers and specialists in this area, it is very hard to understand why they would have to go through the whole registration process, given we recognise qualifications from the UK, as an example. We could certainly limit that in terms of the countries where there are already agreements between Ireland and the other countries in regard to the recognition of qualifications. I do not think for a moment that it is insurmountable. It is a mistake not to avail of that opportunity because we do not want to find ourselves in a situation where there are no medical experts available in this particular area.

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