Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 731 and 732 together.

As the Deputy will already be aware, CORU is Ireland’s multi-profession health and social care professional regulator. Its role is to protect the public by promoting high standards of professional conduct and professional education, training and competence through statutory registration of health and social care professionals.

CORU’s regulatory model is based on protection of title; once a profession is regulated it becomes a criminal offence to use a professional title if a person is not a CORU registrant.

Each profession has its own independent registration board which is provided with the statutory powers to implement regulation for that profession. Registration boards are responsible for establishing a register, approving and monitoring education and training programmes, and setting standards.

Regulations to designate the professions of counsellor and psychotherapist under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 (as amended) were made by the previous Minister for Health, Simon Harris TD, in 2019.The members of the Counsellors and Psychotherapists Registration Board (CPRB) were appointed in February 2019 and they held their inaugural meeting in May 2019.

Once statutory regulation is introduced to the counselling and psychotherapy professions, practitioners wishing to work using these titles in Ireland will have to register with CORU on the appropriate register. The CPRB will set the standard of education and training for entry to the register and approve and monitor education and training programmes in counselling and psychotherapy. It will be an offence for anyone not registered as a counsellor, including a crisis pregnancy counsellor, to use a protected title. All registrants will also be subject to the fitness to practice process in CORU which provides for sanctions against registrants when complaints are proven.

The CPRB is currently considering which titles will be protected by regulation, the minimum standards of proficiency for entry to the profession, the minimum qualifications that will be required of existing practitioners, and the qualifications that will be required for future graduates.

As part of its work, the CPRB undertook an extensive research process to inform the drafting of standards and criteria. This included a review of contemporary evidence-informed academic literature, an examination of comparator international professional standards, and understanding the contemporary practice of the profession in Ireland. Key stakeholders, including the public (through a public consultation process), are also part of the drafting process.

Throughout the course of 2022 and 2023, the CPRB drafted threshold level standards of knowledge, skills and professional behaviour – its Standards of Proficiency – and the systems and processes that education providers must have in place to ensure consistent and effective delivery of graduates who have achieved the Standards of Proficiency ­– its Criteria for Education and Training Programmes. Two sets of these requirements were drafted: one for counsellors and one for psychotherapists representing the first attempt to establish distinct standards for each profession in Ireland and the first effort to standardise threshold level education and training requirements for entry to each profession.

The public consultation on the draft Standards of Proficiency and Criteria for Education and Training Programmes ran for 12 weeks from 4 September until 1^st 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. The public consultation is the mechanism through which professional bodies, as well as other stakeholders, are given an opportunity to provide their views on the draft standards. CORU, on behalf of the CPRB, will brief my Department on the outcome of the public consultation in due course.

Owing to the significant body of preparatory work that the CPRB are required to undertake, and the complexity of introducing regulation to this profession, it is not possible to say with any degree of accuracy when the profession of counsellor will be fully regulated. It is anticipated that the CPRB will require a number of years to complete its work.

Specifically in relation to termination of pregnancy services, My Options is a free-phone helpline that provides free, non-judgemental information and support to anyone in Ireland experiencing an unplanned pregnancy, including information about how to access abortion services in Ireland. Qualified and trained counsellors are also available to provide free counselling to anyone in Ireland who is considering an abortion, or who has had an abortion regardless of where or when the abortion occurred.

Since the implementation of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018, the HSE Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy Programme has solely funded crisis pregnancy counselling services that provide information about all options (parenting, adoption, and abortion) as desired by individual service users. Between 2018 and 2022, there were 15 reported incidents of service users attending the above services having been in prior contact with a ‘rogue’ agency, however none of these incidents occurred in 2022. The HSE’s website (www2.hse.ie/services/unplanned-pregnancy/support-services/booking-a-counselling-session/) advises service users that they should only visit a HSE-funded unplanned pregnancy counselling service.