Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim céad fáilte roimh an Aire. Tá mé cinnte go mbeidh áthas air a chloisint go bhfuil muid i Sinn Féin ag tacú leis an Bille. Is breá an rud go bhfuil muid ag aontú faoi chúrsaí. Cuireann muid failte roimh an reachtaíocht áirithe seo mar síleann muid go bhfuil sé fíor-thábhachtach go mbeadh na daoine atá ag plé leis na cleachtais éagsúla leighis seo cláraithe mar is ceart.

Sinn Féin will support the legislation and the Health and Social Care Professionals (Amendment) Bill is a welcome technical measure. It has a number of key purposes, as the Minister outlined, and we hope it will add to the effective functioning of the Health and Social Care Professionals Council, which represents 12 disciplines, including clinical biochemists, dieticians, medical scientists, occupational therapists, orthoptists, physiotherapists, podiatrists, psychologists, radiographers, social care workers, social workers and speech and language therapists, with optometrists and dispensing opticians to be added in 2013.

The registration boards for each of these professions have yet to be established. One of the purposes of the Bill, as outlined, is to allow the Minister to continue to appoint professional members to the council until each of the registration boards has been established in respect of the 12 professions designated under the Act, elections are to be held and there is the chance to nominate an elected member. We support this process, which is a reasonable step to ensure various disciplines are represented.

The second key purpose is to incorporate the provisions of Directive 2005/36/EC into Irish law, which relates to the recognition of professional qualifications into the principal Act and provide for the assessment and recognition of other non-Irish qualifications outside the scope of the directive. This is again perfectly sensible and there is a need to ensure skills are transferable, particularly as there is often a need to bring people with particular skills into this country's health care service.

Although it is vital to ensure there is co-operation, integration and transferability in a European context, we should also consider how to better bring about integration in an all-Ireland context, and it is not just Sinn Féin which sees value in this. As my colleague, Deputy Ó Caoláin, noted in the other House, the North-South feasibility study on cross-Border co-operation in health care provision, carried out by the two Departments in the North and South, made clear the benefits of cross-Border operation. He noted there are significant difficulties, as there are two jurisdictions on this small island, for both sets of authorities in sustaining high quality and specialist services normally only provided in centres servicing large populations.

Steps can be taken to overcome such challenges if a cross-Border approach is taken. The report noted that where patients must leave both jurisdictions for treatment, the impact on individuals and families is significant in terms of patient well-being and accessibility for families in what can sometimes be traumatic circumstances.

Combining resources for the provision of such services on a North-South basis makes sense. It is particularly relevant to the legislation that the report notes, "it is recognised that both populations would benefit from flexible working arrangements which would enable staff to work in another jurisdiction. For example, practitioners with scarce clinical skills might reasonably offer a service to both populations".

The report considers that issues such as indemnity for staff working out of jurisdiction and mutual recognition of qualifications between professional bodies in both jurisdictions, as well as registration and pension issues associated with working in both jurisdictions, need to be resolved for the benefits of that to be fully recognised. I agree with these sentiments. I hope the Minister takes them on board and that we will see action in this regard in the coming weeks and months.

The third major purpose of the legislation is to enhance the effective operation of the council and registration boards, including items such as fees payable to members of the council, registration criteria and the updating of fines for offences under the Act. This is largely technical in nature.

The steps taken here are positive in improving regulation and so on. They are, however, modest steps with reference to the substantial reform we require. The Minister commits himself to reform on a substantial scale but we need to see more evidence of this progress.

Given the way the HSE and our health care system are structured, too few people are employed in many of these disciplines, despite many being trained in those fields. The most obvious example is that of speech therapists. Many who have qualifications would love to take on that work full-time and plug a gap in service provision that is clearly there. This was borne out in the Dáil contributions by Deputy Ó Caoláin and several others. The recruitment embargo is a blunt instrument that is not working and is hampering the care of patients.

I urge the Minister to bring this issue back to Cabinet. Nonetheless, we commend the Minister for bringing the Bill forward and we will be supporting it. Táimid ag tacú leis an mBille mar atá leagtha amach.