Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 970: To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 234 of 16 November 2011, if the training which is considered necessary for the person's qualifications to be recognised may be carried out by volunteering in a real working environment under the supervision of a senior colleague. [1405/12]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy refers to an application, from the person whose details are supplied, to have his professional qualifications recognised under Directive 2005/36/EC for the purposes of seeking employment in the publicly-funded health service in Ireland.

This Directive applies to all EEA nationals wishing to practise a regulated profession in an EEA Member State other than that in which they obtained their professional qualifications. If the qualification is deemed not to be equivalent to the relevant Irish qualification, the host Member State must offer an applicant a compensation measure - an adaptation period or an aptitude test.

The Validation Unit of my Department, which administers the Directive in respect of the profession in question, has already engaged in considerable correspondence with the applicant on his application. He has been advised of his deficit, which is in clinical research. This deficit must be addressed by one of the compensation measures provided for in the Directive.

The role of the recognition process is not to conduct primary assessment/evaluation of professional training but rather to assess for equivalence to Irish reference standards the certification of previous professional training; accordingly the applicant has been recommended to undertake a taught research programme in which clinical research undertaken would be the subject of independent assessment. It is considered that this would meet the Directive definition of an Adaptation Period as the applicant would receive additional professional training within a supervised structure; and the outcome of this additional training in the conduct of clinical research could be externally assessed prior to the further consideration of his application for recognition under the Directive. The applicant has been informed of this position and it is a matter for him to progress his application.