Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

These amendments, which are technical in nature, do not arise from proceedings on Committee Stage. Sections 88 and 89 of the Medical Practitioners Act 2007 set out the duties of the Irish Medical Council relating to education and training for medical qualifications. They require the Irish Medical Council to approve programmes of training and the bodies that deliver the training. However, although the Act is explicit that the council may refuse to approve a body as a body that may deliver undergraduate or postgraduate training programmes, the Act does not explicitly provide for the council to refuse to approve an individual training programme.

A similar matter arises in section 85 of the Nurses and Midwives Act with respect to the training of nurses and midwives. This is problematic for both regulators in that whereas they can attach conditions to a programme, they do not have the express power to refuse to approve a training programme that does not meet the required standard.

Both the Irish Medical Council and the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland have identified this as a weakness in the respective Acts and, accordingly, these amendments give both regulators the express power to refuse to approve training programmes.