John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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575. To ask the Minister for Health the status of developments towards the regulation of counselling and psychotherapy professionals; the stakeholder groups he has met in the context of this reform; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9882/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Psychotherapists and counsellors are not currently regulated under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005. However, the Act provides that the Minister may, by regulation, designate a health and social care profession not already designated if he or she considers that it is appropriate and in the public interest to do so and if specified criteria have been met.

The regulation of a new profession under the Act involves a consultation process and the making of a number of statutory instruments by the Minister for Health and by the relevant registration board.

Over the past few years, a number of professional bodies have met with the Department of Health, at both official and ministerial levels, to convey their views on options to regulate counsellors and psychotherapists. In September of last year, the Department engaged in a formal consultation process in which interested persons and organisations were invited to formally submit their views on how the statutory regulation of the profession(s) should proceed. A total of 84 submissions were received by the closing date of 30th November 2016.

I am undertaking an examination of these submissions which will inform the approach to be adopted in progressing the statutory regulation of psychotherapists and counsellors.

I envisage that the next steps in the statutory regulation of the profession(s) under the Act will commence in the coming months with the submission of draft designation regulations to the Houses of the Oireachtas.

While the profession or professions of counsellor and psychotherapist are not currently designated under the 2005 Act, counsellors and psychotherapists are subject to legislation similar to other practitioners including consumer legislation, competition, contract and criminal law. There are also various regulatory controls on many counsellors and psychotherapists operating in Ireland.

The profession of psychologist, for example, is a designated profession under the 2005 Act which means that those psychologists who are counsellors and/or psychotherapists will begin to be regulated when the Psychologists Registration Board, which is due to be established during this year, opens its register.

Psychiatrists, some of whom practice psychotherapy, are regulated under the Medical Practitioners Act 2007. Also, counsellors/therapists working in the publicly funded health sector are required to have minimum qualifications set by the Health Service Executive under the Health Act 2004.