Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 32: To ask the Minister for Health the reason that fully qualified social workers, who have trained at University of Ulster, are not considered qualified to work in the 26 counties and forced to pay a substantial fee to re-register for social work. [25099/11]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Health and Social Care Professionals Council (CORU) is the regulatory body for health and social care professionals and was established under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005. The Social Workers Registration Board was established in August 2010 and the associated Social Workers Register opened for the receipt and processing of applications on the 31st May 2011.

I presume the Deputy refers to the position whereby social workers are required to statutorily register in each jurisdiction in which they seek to practise their profession - in the South with the Social Workers Registration Board of CORU and in Northern Ireland with the Northern Ireland Social Care Council. Persons trained in Northern Ireland are eligible for consideration to practise in that jurisdiction; they must apply for statutory registration and pay the appropriate registration fee in order to practise in the South. This is because education and training is a competence of each jurisdiction.

Directive 2005/36/EC on the recognition of professional qualifications facilitates freedom of movement by providing a mechanism for the recognition of qualifications obtained in other EEA jurisdictions. Qualification recognition is one of a number of elements of the statutory registration process and the Directive is applied as part of this wider statutory registration process.