Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal East, Labour)
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1652. To ask the Minister for Health the process for medically trained doctors from Spain to apply to the Medical Council for approval to work in Ireland (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11439/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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As you are aware the Medical Council is the regulator of doctors in Ireland and maintains the Register of Medical Practitioners - the register of all doctors who can practise medicine in Ireland. To protect patients, it ensures that all doctors registered to practise medicine in Ireland meet the legislative requirements.

The EU Directive 2005/36/EC sets out the harmonised, minimum standards for medical training within the EU and lists the documentation to be provided by doctors as evidence of having met those standards. Doctors seeking automatic recognition of their qualifications under the Directive are required to provide the documents listed in Annex V, 5.1.1 or 5.1.2 of the Directive. Applicants are further required to provide a current copy of their passport as evidence of identity and a certificate of good standing from all competent authorities with whom they are registered or have held registration with in the past five years. Once all the required documents are received, an application undergoes an assessment and if there are no issues with the application, the applicant will be deemed eligible for registration and then invited to activate their registration.

Recognising that current processing timeframes may pose challenges for doctors with employment offers, the Medical Council has established the Urgent Application Corridor. Upon receiving a formal written request from a clinical site to prioritise an application for registration where the doctor has a job offer, dedicated teams are in place to expedite the application, generally within a couple of weeks.

With regards to your specific query, the application will be assessed within the coming week and following the assessment, the individual concerned will be advised as to the final steps to activate registration.