Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State back to the House. I call Senator Deirdre Clune.

Deirdre Clune (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State. I am glad to have the opportunity to raise the issue of the regulation of practitioners in the health and social care area, particularly counsellors and psychotherapists. The Minister referred to this area when we discussed the Health and Social Care Professionals Bill in this House and in the other House. A point raised was that there is concern that two areas in particular are not regulated. For various reasons, be it financial, health or social pressures, more people are turning to these types of services. Most of the services provided are of an excellent standard but there is a need to regulate them and to ensure that would-be users can be confident that they can access quality professional services and that they will not be treated by so-called cowboys, particularly if they are in a vulnerable state.

I raise this issue because Behaviour & Attitudes published a survey this week carried out by the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy which revealed that 60% of Irish people now want to talk about issues. They believe that is an acceptable thing to do and they discuss it with their friends and relations. That has become a more common conversation. Some 80% of people believe the entire area should be regulated. The Minister of State would agree with that and would expect it.

I raise the issue because it arises regularly. People are concerned about it. Individuals who use these services are vulnerable. We do not want to aggravate their problems but rather ensure they get the best care possible. People expect the State would regulate in this area.

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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I thank the Senator for raising this issue and giving me the opportunity to update the House on the ongoing regulatory programme being undertaken by the Department of Health, including the regulation of health and social care professions.

The Health and Social Care Professionals Act was passed by the Oireachtas in 2005; it was amended last year. The Act provides for the establishment of a system of statutory registration for 12 health and social care professions. The 12 professions to be regulated under the Act are: clinical biochemists; dieticians; medical scientists; occupational therapists; orthoptists; physiotherapists; podiatrists; psychologists; radiographers; social care workers; social workers; and speech and language therapists.

The structure of the system of statutory registration will comprise a registration board for each of the individual professions to be regulated and a health and social care professionals' council with overall responsibility for the regulatory system. The council was established in March 2007 as working to put in place the necessary structures for registration, education and fitness to practise for the 12 health and social care professionals designated under the Act.

Five registration boards have been established to date, and the registration boards and their registers for the remaining designated professions should be established by 2015. Under the Act, the Minister for Health may designate other health and social care professions if he considers that it is in the public interest to do so and if the specified criteria have been met.

While the immediate priority of the Minister, Deputy Reilly, is to proceed with the establishment of the registration boards for the professions currently designated under the Act, he did commit to bring counsellors and psychotherapists within the ambit of the Act as soon as possible.

Both the Minister and I acknowledge the work done by a number of counsellor and psychotherapist national groups in coming together as a Psychological Therapies Forum to advise as a single voice in so far as is possible. However, a number of issues remain to be clarified. These include: decisions on whether one or two professions are to be regulated; the title or titles of the profession or professions; and the minimum qualifications to be required of counsellors and psychotherapists, which is an extremely important aspect.

A report from Quality & Qualifications Ireland, QQI, is expected to be completed after the summer and will establish standards of knowledge, skills and competence to be acquired by students of counselling and psychotherapy. This is an essential prerequisite to regulation of the profession and will allow for the regulation of education courses for the future. In addition, the council will need to assess the adequacy of the wide range of qualifications held by existing practitioners against the QQI benchmark to establish their eligibility for registration.

Officials of the Department will be engaging with the Psychological Therapies Forum and other relevant stakeholders as soon as the QQI report is available. They will work through the outstanding issues that have yet to be addressed with a view to achieving regulation of the profession as soon as possible in the best interests, as the Senator rightly said, of the protection of the public.

I emphasise that while counsellors and psychotherapists are not currently subject to professional statutory regulation, they are subject to legislation similar to other practitioners including consumer legislation, competition, contract and criminal law, and so forth.

The issue of regulation is properly raised by the Senator. I hope the outline I have given goes some way to setting out the current state of play in that regard. It is a most important issue and it is being addressed in the context in which I have set it out.

Deirdre Clune (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for that and for outlining the roadmap that is ahead of us as he prepares to ensure that these professions are regulated. That is important. I hope that by this time next year there will be some developments but the report expected after the summer is important, and developments will follow from that.