Keith Swanick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister back to the House. Fianna Fáil will support this Bill, which makes minor technical amendments to the relevant Act and will facilitate any non-Irish health and social care professional qualification which was recognised in the State prior to the introduction of statutory registration with CORU in 2005. Although a number of professions in 2005 had informal or voluntary systems of registration organised by their respective professional bodies, only five health professions were then subject to statutory registration in Ireland: doctors, dentists, nurses, opticians and pharmacists.

The 2001 health strategy, Quality and Fairness: A Health System for You, gave a firm commitment to strengthen and expand provisions for the statutory registration of health professionals. The Health and Social Care Professionals Bill, therefore, represented an important step forward in strengthening the regulatory environment. The Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 provides for the introduction of a system of statutory regulation for certain health and social care professionals: clinical biochemists, counsellors and psychotherapists, dietitians, dispensing opticians, medical scientists, occupational therapists, optometrists, physiotherapists, podiatrists, psychologists, radiographers, radiation therapists, social care workers, social workers and speech and language therapists. This means that a practitioner cannot use the protected title, that is, he or she cannot practise in his or her professional capacity, without being registered with the relevant registration board. Among other things this regulation protected vulnerable people from those who sought to prey on them with alternative therapies, which is important.

One of the requirements for registration under the Act is that the applicant must hold an approved qualification and section 38 provides several routes for the recognition of qualifications. This Bill adds a new route which provides that any non-Irish health professional qualification which was recognised either by the Minister or by bodies acting on behalf of the State prior to the introduction of statutory registration for a health and social care profession, will be considered to be an approved qualification under the Act with no requirement for assessment by CORU.

Section 3 is the key section of the Bill. It proposes to amend section 38 of the 2005 Act. A relevant professional qualification for the purpose of this section is defined as a professional qualification that has already been recognised by a relevant person as of a standard of proficiency which rendered the holder eligible for recruitment by the HSE in that profession. Recognition must have been granted either before the establishment of the register for that designated profession, or on or after the establishment of the register where an assessment for recognition was commenced by the relevant person before that date. The health and social care professions have been to the forefront in setting and maintaining standards of patient care and professionalism in this country. They have been proactive in working towards a statutory system of registration and are supportive of the general principles underpinning the system.

We are happy to support this Bill and we look forward to seeing it implemented in the near future.