Ann Ormonde (Fianna Fail)

I support the points raised by Senator Henry regarding the new professional health care Bill due to come before the House. Semi-professionals, who call themselves professionals, have attended courses that are not validated. These courses are mushrooming throughout the country and there is a strong case for addressing this anomaly. In many cases, people operate as counsellors and we do not know where they got their qualifications.

This debate should also be widened to include education, to examine courses which produce people who are not suitably qualified to take on any role in the therapeutic area. This issue should be incorporated in the debate regarding professionals and semi-professionals operating within the health service. Such a debate is urgently required and I ask the Leader to facilitate it, as this is a significant issue that is being raised in newspapers, on radio and television. I regularly hear of this mushrooming of counsellors, as they call themselves, who appear from nowhere. We do not know what kind of course they have attended or if the course was validated.