Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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858. To ask the Minister for Health if he will correspond with An Bord Altranais in respect of a 16-week delay in the registration of nurses who have trained and worked abroad and have now returned to Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4382/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI) endeavours to process all applications for registrations, including overseas applications, in a timely manner.

The processing of overseas applications from within the EU is provided for under the EU Directive 2005/36/EC which has strict timelines. The NMBI has advised my Department that it is currently up to date with all of the initial administrative assessments of Directive applications. Occasionally, delays can occur in cases where the application is incomplete. Currently, the NMBI has 294 Directive applications, out of which 106 are in an ‘incomplete’ status requiring additional documentation from the applicant or documentation from a competent authority in another jurisdiction.

Although the processing of non-EU applications is not governed by legislative time limits , the NMBI endeavours to process these applications in a similarly prompt manner.

I understand that the NMBI is in contact with the Deputy regarding an individual case and the matter is being examined.