Joan Freeman (Independent) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Independent group, I welcome the Health and Social Care Professionals (Amendment) Bill 2017. The Bill proposes to amend certain provisions of the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005. This is a procedural and technical Bill which seeks to address gaps in the 2005 Act, which is designed to regulate 14 different professions, including psychologists, bio-chemists, care workers and radiographers. I do not propose to discuss each of the nine sections and the amendments in detail but I would like to comment on the purpose of this legislation and how it will enhance the 2005 Act.

The 2005 Act provided for the establishment of registration boards in health and social care professional councils in respect of a number of professions. Broadly speaking, the board and the professional council, which is comprised of the various people practising in the professions they seek to regulate, provide for the registration and disciplining of the professions they were created to regulate. The board and, in particular, the professional council deal with issues of complaint and the professional development of the professions. The council promotes high standards of professional conduct, education, training and competence among the professional body it represents. The council also carries out practical functions, including receiving applications from members seeking to register with the profession and establishes committees of inquiry into complaints made in respect of its members. The amendments, in particular to section 2 of the Bill, will allow the Minister for Health to make the initial appointment of a professional member to the council when a new profession is designated and will allow him to fill casual vacancies among professional members where the relevant registration board has not yet established a register. The Bill will also allow the Minister to appoint professional members directly to the registration boards during the transitional period of the professions concerned.

The Bill, in particular section 5, will also amend the Act to permit a registration board to make by-laws to apply conditions in respect of education and training for applicants for registration who are qualified for a specified period but who have never practised their profession. Section 5 contains a broad discretion for the registration board to set the criteria by which those who have been "out of practice" for some time should be estimated as professionally fit to resume their professions, including their education and training and any matter which, in the eyes of the registration board, is necessary or desirable for the protection of the public. That is what we are trying to get at. We are trying to protect the public.

One of the most significant amendments the Bill proposes relates to the introduction of the profession of physical therapist as a variant of the physiotherapist profession. The Bill will specifically amend the Act to permit the registration in the register of physiotherapists on a once-off basis of physical therapists who have graduated since 2013. This has been done, I understand, in consultation with the various professions on foot of concerns they raised and is subject to a number of qualifying criteria. It is clear from the proposed section 7 that any physical therapist who registers in the register of physiotherapists must hold specified qualifications awarded by the Institute of Physical Therapy and Applied Science, Dublin. The purpose of making a distinction between both professions - those of physical therapist and physiotherapist - is that no confusion can arise between the professions. This will, I hope, address concerns raised by those practising in each profession.

Overall, the amendment is practical and gives significant powers to enhance regulation of both registration boards and the Health and Social Care Professionals Council. It serves to fill gaps identified in the 2005 Act and allows the Minister to implement decisions taken last year that will result in the protection of the title of physical therapist for the exclusive use of those granted registration by the Physiotherapists Registration Board. I understand that this change of policy was taken following a consultation process and the amendments were welcomed by the professional bodies concerned. Naturally, the Government should always be guided by the experience of those professions in the manner in which regulation should take place.

I would like briefly to encourage the Minister, Deputy Harris, to continue his good work on the regulation of counsellors and psychotherapists by reference to the powers already granted to him under the 2005 Act. The Minister spoke briefly about this in the Dáil last week and said plans were under way for the creation of a 13-member registration board tasked with carrying out regulation of counsellors and psychotherapists, which is not too far from my own background. There has been ongoing public concern with the regulation of these professions and the extraordinary power they have when giving advice to vulnerable people. It is most important they are regulated by registration boards. I trust that the ongoing efforts to regulate these practices in a way that gives best protection to those who engage their services will continue.