Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This also is effectively a technical amendment. Section 38 of the Medical Practitioners Act 2007 addresses areas that overlap between the practice and other health professions. Under existing legislation where a person holds a dual qualification in medicine and in another profession, for example, dentistry, this section allows that person to lawfully practice those areas of dentistry which overlap with medicine without having to be on the register of medical practitioners. Section 37 provides that a person must be registered with the Medical Council in order to practise medicine in the State. This amendment, recommended by the Office of the Attorney General, clarifies that the requirements of section 37 do not apply to a person registered as a dentist, nurse and so on, who is practising medicine when carrying out tasks in the context of other specified health professions.