Written answers
Tuesday, 20 May 2025
Department of Health
Medical Qualifications
James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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790. To ask the Minister for Health if she can provide any detail in respect of the Taoiseach’s statement in the Dáil on 2 April 2025 that getting overseas occupational and speech and language therapists’ qualifications recognised by CORU is an issue that is being pursued by Government; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25224/25]
Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Officials in my department are in regular contact with CORU regarding the matter of recognition of international qualifications for the health and social care professions which CORU regulates, including occupational therapists and speech and language therapists.
CORU has made a lot of progress in improving both its recognition of international qualifications and its registration timelines, having reviewed its processes and identifying areas where it could utilise the potential of its legislation to improve outcomes.
In particular, increased delegations from the registration boards to the executive have been put in place to help improve recognition timelines. These include:
- matters considered low risk
- qualifications assessed as meeting the standards to practise in the profession in Ireland
- increases in the frequency of board meetings and
- increases in the frequency of the registrar’s review of applications for decision to a weekly basis
In 2025 to end Q1, CORU has been experiencing its fastest rate in growth of numbers of registrants being added to the register month on month and hopes to achieve an average 50 day timeframe for the recognition of international qualifications from receipt of a completed application. The number of international applicants recognised to date by CORU in 2025 is highlighted in the table below.
Number of International Applicants Recognised in 2025, Jan-12 May (n=607)
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Bars - Applications Recognised Line - Average no. of days to recognition (processing time)
Regarding occupational therapists and speech & language therapists specifically, 35 and 32 have been recognised by CORU to date in 2025 (Jan- 30th April).
A major achievement in the past six months has been the implementation of CORU’s new Registrant Management System which allows greater visibility of the applicant journey and removes duplicate steps across both the recognition of international qualifications and registration processes. CORU is also working on development of a dedicated customer service resource in 2025.
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