Joe O'Toole (Independent)

While I do not wish to oppose Senator Ryan's amendment, it fails to reflect my thinking. However, Senator Feeney's comments closely reflect my view. Confusion is being allowed to reign and we will pay the price. What we are doing is completely wrong. As Senator Feeney correctly pointed out, physiotherapists are referred to in some countries as physical therapists. Both terms are used in Ireland to describe different disciplines, hence the difficulty.

The legislation is concerned with regulation and quality. That cannot be diluted in any scenario. I agree very much with Senator Henry that the qualification of physiotherapist is precious and we should hold it in the highest regard and make sure it is protected in legislation. On the other hand, physical therapists do a different job. I asked that physical therapists should be regulated, perhaps under a different title, but I was informed there was no way this would be accepted. We are inheriting a problem and creating a greater one.

When a patient makes an appointment, he or she needs to know precisely the qualifications of person with whom he or she makes the appointment. There have been problems in recent times with alternative practitioners. Those problems arose because of a lack of understanding about the practitioners patients were attending. This does not mirror the physical therapist issue because that would imply physical therapists are in some way dangerous. I have the height of respect for physical therapists as they fulfil an important function and, as Senator Henry said, there is no reason they cannot work in a complementary fashion with physiotherapists. We need to distinguish between both disciplines and we need to establish that they should be regulated.

I examined all the literature and submissions I received on this legislation from various groups. We should regulate physiotherapy using the current qualification standard. The Minister should then avail of the provision in the legislation which allows him or her to define other groups and those who are engaged as physical therapists could be renamed within that group. I called the representatives of physical therapists to find out whether they could come up with a name but nobody could come up with one with which I was satisfied because physical therapist is a global term for physiotherapists and that needs to be protected.

Amendment No. 32 provides that one can only use the titles of physiotherapists and physical therapists if one has achieved the appropriate qualification, which in Ireland is a degree in physiotherapy. That is not provided for in the legislation. A gate is being left open, which is unfair to physiotherapists. They are worried not because they are anti-physical therapists, but because they want to protect what they have built up. Reputation is hugely important to medical professionals given that it provides the basis on which patients attend their clinics.

Both titles are interchangeable around the world and Senator Browne proposes that they should be protected at a particular level. The legislation should outline the function of physiotherapists, the entry requirements and academic qualifications and the way in which they will be regulated. Anybody, therefore, who wants to call himself or herself a physical therapists must get over the same bar. In other words, the title does not matter as long as patients know what they are doing and how they achieved their qualifications. A difficulty will be created by not doing so and it will come back to haunt us.

If the Minister of State is not of a mind to accept our thinking, we will have to come back to the House to address the difficulty in time. Nobody will win. Hassle will be created between different physical therapists and physiotherapists and confusion will be created for Irish physiotherapists who travel abroad. More thought needs to go into this. The issue will build up and the arguments about what we must do in this regard are highly persuasive. Will the Minister of State at least concede the merit of the argument on this issue?