Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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872. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to proceed with statutory regulation for psychotherapists; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8277/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 provides for the protection of the public by promoting high standards of professional conduct and professional education, training and competence through the statutory registration of health and social care professions designated under the Act.

Regulations to designate counsellors and psychotherapists under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 and to establish the Counsellors and Psychotherapists Registration Board were made in 2018. Members were appointed to the Counsellors and Psychotherapists Registration Board in February 2019 and they held their inaugural meeting in May 2019.

The work of a registration board includes consideration of the titles to be protected and the minimum qualifications to be required of existing practitioners and the qualifications that will be required for future graduates. The work of the Counsellors and Psychotherapists Registration Board is significantly more challenging than it is for registration boards for some of the more established professions owing to the different and complex pathways into these professions, the variety of titles used, and the variety and number of courses and course providers. This work is ongoing.