Dan Neville (Limerick, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

426. To ask the Minister for Health the position regarding the registration of physiotherapists under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005. [39375/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The profession of physiotherapist is one of the 14 professions designated under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005.

The Physiotherapists Registration Board was established by statutory instrument in October 2013 and its members appointed the following May. The Board is currently finalising the bye-laws necessary to establish its register and will be engaging in a public consultation process in this regard in the near future with a view to establishing its register and accepting applications for registration early next year.

The Act provides for a 2-year transitional or "grand-parenting" period which commences on the establishment of the register and during which existing practitioners may register on the basis of specified qualifications. After that period only registrants, who will be subject to the Act's regulatory regime, will be entitled to use the relevant specified professional title.