Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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109. To ask the Minister for Health if she will consider revising plans in place to modify standards for registration as a counsellor or psychotherapist currently under consideration by CORU, in order to reflect the concerns raised by members of an organisation (details supplied). [64595/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Regulation of counsellors and psychotherapists is being introduced to protect the public, ensuring that care provided is of a consistently high standard and always by suitably qualified individuals.

CORU have undertaken extensive research, analysis, and public consultation to introduce regulation of each profession for the first time.

This comprehensive process recognised the differences in scope and complexity of practice between the two professions and ensures that the threshold standards and qualification levels set for each accurately reflect the competencies required for safe and effective practice, while strengthening public protection.

The recently adopted Standards and Criteria reflect the threshold knowledge and skills required for safe practice at entry to the professions of Counselling and Psychotherapy.

On issues such as personal therapy and clinical supervision CORU’s competency-based framework ensures that essential attributes such as self-awareness, reflexivity, and ethical judgment are achieved through validated educational methods, including clinical supervision, reflective practice, and experiential learning.

The framework has been designed to strengthen standards of practice while ensuring that training pathways and workforce supply are not adversely affected.

I am confident that CORU’s work will bring clear benefits for public protection.

CORU will continue to engage closely with stakeholders, including professional bodies as the regulatory process advances, keeping public protection at the centre of this work.