Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

These amendments are primarily consequent on an amendment made on Committee Stage in the Dáil. In 2017, the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 was amended to provide that persons who were awarded certain specified qualifications after 1 January 2013 could apply for registration to the Physiotherapists Registration Board. It provided a two-year grandparenting window during which appropriately qualified persons, including persons awarded the qualification before 1 January 2013, could seek registration under this provision. This grandparenting clause required applicants to have practice in the State for a minimum period prior to application. This two-year window ran from 20 December 2017 until 31 December 2019.

Legal advice subsequently determined that the 1 January 2013 qualification date requirement introduced under the 2017 Act was legally problematic as it rendered ineligible for registration persons who had received the very same qualification before 1 January 2013 and who also were not able to apply for registration under the grandparenting clause.This applies to a small number of qualified professionals who may have returned to the State after practising in another jurisdiction or who may have spent a number of years out of practise. It was, therefore, necessary to amend this provision and provide a window during which these people could also apply for registration. Accordingly, an amendment was introduced on Committee Stage in the Dáil that removed the reference to qualifications awarded after 1 January 2013 and extended the registration window for applicants from 31 December 2019 to 31 December 2021. However, as currently drafted, extending the registration window from 31 December 2019 to 31 December 2021 is dependent on the Bill being enacted before the end of 2019. As we all know this did not happen and the registration window closed on 31 December 2019.

If the Bill is enacted, as currently drafted, it will incorrectly imply that the registration window remains open. Accordingly, the amendment proposed here is a corrective measure. It addresses the fact that there is now a period where a cohort of applicants are unable to apply for registration with the Physiotherapists Registration Board, CORU. It allows applications, which were received by CORU prior to 31 December 2019 but where no decision has been reached by the board in relation to them, to be considered as valid applications thereby removing the need for an applicant to submit a second application. Furthermore, it extends the window of registration for qualifying applicants from the date of the commencement of the Bill until 30 June 2022, which I trust will provide a sufficiently adequate time for these applicants to avail of these registration provisions.

The amendment also clarifies that any applications received during the current period when the application window was closed, between 31 December 2019 and the commencement of the section, are not to be considered by the registration board though it is open to an applicant to reapply when the application window re-opens.

Finally, the amendment provides that applicants who seek registration under the provision will be required to comply with return-to-practise by-laws in the same way that other applicants for registration, on the Physiotherapists Registration Board, are required.