Results 12,361-12,380 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Select Committee on Health: Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: Is that okay? I am fine to discuss it now but this is very much covered by amendments Nos. 4 and 5. The proposed approach is that the CORU will open the period of registration from November and there will be a two-year period when social care workers can register. There are a few different routes to registration. There are competency-based exams; the professional qualifications which are...

Select Committee on Health: Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: I move amendment No. 4: In page 6, line 16, to delete “and”. Amendment No. 4 is consequential on No. 5. The Bill as initiated sought to remove a provision in CORU’s legislation which would allow social care workers to seek registration on the basis of their employer's opinion of their proficiency during the grandfathering period. That speaks directly to the...

Select Committee on Health: Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes. I beg the Deputy's pardon.

Select Committee on Health: Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: That is a slightly different issue but I hear the Deputy's point on the amendment. I share her concern and I interrogated the issue at length with officials. Essentially, the following happened. In the Bill as we discussed it on Second Stage, the employer route was not included. In order to comply with the EU directive post Second Stage, there was a public consultation. Social care...

Select Committee on Health: Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: That is true. However, the profession does not have different subsets. It is not that someone is a social care worker in one of those areas. I hear the Deputy and I do not disagree with some of the positions she has taken. I have had the same conversation with the officials. However, the view is that social care is single regulated profession. Therefore, if a person has sufficient...

Select Committee on Health: Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes.

Select Committee on Health: Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: The profession arranges that, but CORU will oversee it. They must have a certain number of hours or units of CPD per year.

Select Committee on Health: Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes.

Select Committee on Health: Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: It is 30 CPD credits in a 12-month period.

Select Committee on Health: Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes. May I just say-----

Select Committee on Health: Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: It is not perfect, but I think the CPD almost is the conversion course. There are thousands of these health professionals across the country.

Select Committee on Health: Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: The Deputy mentioned a few things. The appropriateness of an expert witness or so-called expert witness in court is a matter for legal teams and the courts. We are in the healthcare business and we are regulating a profession here. I am not dismissing the Deputy's concerns, but I think they have been dealt with. My understanding is that legal teams can question the appropriate...

Select Committee on Health: Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: I do not think we can deal with that within our own thing.

Select Committee on Health: Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: We are in the business of healthcare, however. I share the concerns that are being raised by committee members. I raised exactly the same concerns, myself. This is a change. The original Bill we debated on Second Stage did not allow this particular mechanism. We are not creating a workforce from scratch here. We are not saying that we have a new regulated profession and we will start to...

Select Committee on Health: Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: I think we have covered it.

Select Committee on Health: Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: I move amendment No. 5: In page 6, to delete lines 17 to 19 and substitute the following: “(b) applies during the transitional period to the Social Care Workers Registration Board for registration, (c) complies with section 37(2) and with any requirement imposed on, or request made to, the person under section 37(3) as applied by this section, (d) meets one or more of the...

Select Committee on Health: Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputies. There is a lot to unpack there. On the procedural point, I am not minded to postpone the proceedings. This is an important piece of legislation. I am very happy to discuss these issues with Deputy Durkan off-line. I have not heard them before and I do not have the detail. I am very happy to meet him and discuss them. We have Report Stage still to come. I do not...

Select Committee on Health: Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: It sounds like it is an issue that would need consideration by my Department, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, the Department of Justice and maybe others.

Select Committee on Health: Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: In the first instance, I will organise a meeting between the Deputy and my officials and maybe we could discuss it there. It sounds like a very significant concern that applies more broadly than one profession. Is that okay?

Select Committee on Health: Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: With regard to Deputy Colm Burke's point, I will talk to the substance of the concern in a moment but on the amendment itself, it is the timing that is the issue. Yes, I am very happy to do a report and indeed have a committee session on it or do an informal briefing for committee members with the Department. There is a very substantial piece of work going on and the HRB report is one part...