Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Having sufficient capacity in the health workforce and appropriate configuration of staff and skill-mix are integral to the delivery of safe and timely health services. The Department of Health is supportive of any initiative which ensures that sufficient professionals are trained, recruited and retained in the areas where healthcare need is anticipated.

Engagement between my Department and the HSE is ongoing in relation to reviewing the future role of Physician Associates in the Irish health service. A number of issues including but not limited to the role, responsibilities, scope of practice, clinical governance and regulatory requirements, need to be considered.

Statutory regulation forms a part of a system of assurance that the Department utilises to mitigate risk posed to the public by the practise of health and social care professions. There are many professions engaged in the health service who are not subject to regulation. The issues to be considered regarding the proportionate degree of regulatory force required to protect the public are complex.

In line with ongoing work in the Department of Health, the Health Research Board carried out research on behalf of the Department to assist in policy development in this area. The report, “National Approaches to Regulating Health and Social Care Professions”, examines approaches to the regulation of health and social care professionals internationally and is publicly available on the Department’s website www.gov.ie/en/publication/ea62b-national-approaches-to-regulating-health-and-social-care-professions/

Officials in my Department are drawing from this report and other relevant sources to develop a framework to guide policy on the regulation of health and social care professionals into the future. This framework will also be informed by an evidence and risk-based approach to regulation in line with requirements set out in the EU Proportionality Test Directive, which was transposed into Irish law on 19 August 2022 (S.I. No. 413/2022). Further information on the Proportionality Test Directive can be found here:

There are no plans in place to progress regulation of individual professions until appropriate risk-assessment and evaluation tools are in place in compliance with best practice, international evidence, and the Proportionality Test Directive.