Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The amendment relates to section 36 of the Health and Social Care Professionals Act, which requires registration boards to establish a register of members of that profession as soon as is practicable after the registration board's establishment. The effect of the amendment would be to require registers to open within a year of the establishment of a board or, where boards have been established, within a year of the enactment of the Bill, even where the work necessary to open the register safely is not complete.

Registration boards are established under Part 3 of the Health and Social Care Professionals Act, to perform functions assigned to them under the Act. The objective of the registration board of a designated profession is to protect the public by fostering high standards of professional conduct and professional registration of education, training and competence among registrants of that profession. As part of that work, the Act sets out a range of duties the board must undertake, some of which are required before the register can open. By way of example, the board must set standards of proficiency necessary for the profession and the education standards required for registration of that profession. Course providers must then apply to have the course they provide recognised as courses that meet those standards and thereby the threshold for entry to the profession. These courses must be reviewed and assessed to ensure they meet the threshold.

The work required to approve training programmes for entry to the profession is significantly easier for a board overseeing the registration of one profession, in particular one that is long established, such as speech and language therapy. In the case of a board responsible for the registration of two professions, or professions with multiple entry pathways, or where multiple course providers are applying for recognition, such as in the case of social care workers, it is clear the work is much more complex and is likely to take longer. We must not forget that the purpose of regulation is protection of the public by ensuring that registrants of a profession have met the standards set to practise that profession. Where those standards are not set, or are set but it is not clear whether the educational courses provided meet those standards, this poses a clear risk to patient and user safety.

A suite of by-laws also has to be made by the board before a register is opened. The board makes by-laws in respect of the following: applications for registration on the register of that profession; qualifications approved for the purposes of registration, as attesting to the standard of proficiency required for registration; the conditions for registration in a division of a register of that profession; and where applicable, police or Garda clearance, health declarations, conduct declarations, and return-to-practise requirements if an applicant has not practised for more than two years. The board must also review international qualifications as it becomes the competent authority, under EU legislation, to allow international applicants to apply for registration.Accordingly, mindful of the work of each board to ensure the registers are opened safely, it would be utterly counterproductive and dangerous to impose a statutory date by which these registers would open without any consideration of whether the work necessary to open them is safely completed. Therefore, I must oppose the amendment.