Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the Health and Social Care Professionals Council and Registration Boards, collectively known as CORU, are responsible for protecting the public by promoting high standards of professional conduct, education, training, and competence amongst the professions designated under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act (2005).

Each profession designated under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act has its own independent registration board with statutory responsibility for:

• Establishing and maintaining the register of members for that profession;
• Recognising qualifications gained outside the State;
• Approving and monitoring education and training programmes for entry to the register;
• Setting the code of professional conduct and ethics giving guidance to professionals on Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

The Counsellors and Psychotherapists Registration Board (CPRB) was established in February 2019. The work of the CPRB 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 CPRB 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.

To date, the following progress has been made by the CPRB:

• Identification, verification and comprehensive assessment of legacy/historical qualifications to determine if they are appropriate for transitioning existing practitioners onto the respective registers (when open);
• Scoping and research on the regulation of counsellors and psychotherapists internationally has been conducted;
• Drafting of separate and distinct draft Standards of Proficiency for counsellors and psychotherapists and Criteria for Education and Training Programmes has been finalised.

The public consultation on the draft Standards of Proficiency and Criteria for Education and Training Programmes ran until Friday 1st December 2023. As part of this consultation, the CPRB encouraged feedback from all stakeholders, including members of the professions, education providers, employers, professional and representative bodies, as well as members of the public.

I am informed that the CPRB will consider all submissions very carefully in formalising Standards of Proficiency and Criteria for Education and Training Programmes for the psychotherapy profession. CORU, on behalf of the CPRB, will brief my Department on the outcome of the public consultation in due course.

I hope this information is of assistance.