Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats)

There was a health committee session last week on the regulation of counselling and psychotherapy. In standards it has published, CORU has adopted a position that is entirely at odds with the main representative groups of those disciplines, which will reduce supervision requirements and remove mandatory personal therapy for trainees. These changes, if implemented, will degrade professional standards and undermine patient safety. CORU is showing a remarkable level of intransigence on these fundamentals of safe practice. Practitioners and representative bodies have warned that the proposals could also jeopardise recognition and mobility across the EU for counsellors and psychotherapists. We must protect high-quality training, preserve public confidence and ensure regulation strengthens, not weakens, these services.

I am not expressing some fringe opinion. The health committee was unanimous in supporting the counselling and psychotherapy representative groups and the session included some strong and insightful contributions from the Taoiseach's party colleagues, including Senator Costello. Will the Government immediately pause the CORU process, bring representative bodies and practitioners into full consultation and commit to reforms that prioritise client safety and high professional standards?

See this speech in context