David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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165. To ask the Minister for Health her plans for legislative changes to advance regulation of AHSCP in line with the requirements of CORU; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [64615/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy’s office has clarified that the question relates to the regulation of psychologists. In this regard, CORU is progressing towards the introduction of statutory regulation for the psychology profession. A regulatory model has been developed that will facilitate the protection of the title ‘psychologist’ in Ireland.

Regulation will be introduced in two phases. The first phase will see the registration system applying to clinical, counselling and educational psychologists, with the second phase encompassing all other psychology specialisms.

CORU has now published the Standards of Proficiency and Criteria for Education and Training for these three specialisms. This is a significant and much-anticipated milestone in the process of introducing regulation for the psychology profession in Ireland, establishing the pre-registration education and training requirements for the first three registers of the Psychologists Registration Board. It is expected that registration for these first three specialisms will commence next year.

The Department of Health is progressing with work to enable the health and social care workforce through the development of advanced skills and optimisation of skill mix. No legislative changes have been deemed to be required at present to support service level initiatives in the current roll out of Candidate Advanced Practitioner roles.