Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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181. To ask the Minister for Health if there is a proposal for the regulating and licensing of osteopaths; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50232/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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CORU was established under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 to regulate certain health and social care professions. There are 17 health and social care professions designated for regulation under the Act and currently there are registers open for 11 professions. The profession of osteopathy is not, however, designated for regulation.

Section 4 of the 2005 Act provides that, following a consultation process and with the approval of the Houses of the Oireachtas, the Minister for Health can make regulations designating a health or social care profession not already designated under the Act.The Department has received requests from approximately 25 health and social care professions to be statutorily regulated, including osteopaths. Consideration of which health and social care professions require statutory regulation to protect the public, and the identification of the proportionate degree of regulatory force required to achieve this aim, are highly complex. It was decided last year that the Health Research Board would be requested to carry out research on behalf of the Department on methods adopted in other jurisdictions on the regulation of health and social care professions to assist and inform the question of risk assessment within the context of professional regulation. This research has been received and is being examined by Department officials. The report is publicly available on the Department’s website at www.gov.ie/en/publication/ea62b-national-approaches-to-regulating-health-and-social-care-professions/.

In the meantime, CORU continues the complex work of preparing for regulation under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 the professions already designated for regulation.

I hope this information is of assistance to the Deputy.