Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware, CORU is Ireland’s multi-profession health and social care regulator. CORU’s role is to protect the public by regulating the health and social care professions designated under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 (as amended).

Counsellors and psychotherapists perform a vital role, providing therapeutic care to often vulnerable people. Regulation is being introduced to these professions to protect the public, ensuring that care provided is of a consistently high standard and always by suitably qualified individuals.

The Counsellors and Psychotherapists Registration Board (CPRB) was established in 2019 and since that time has been working to progress regulation of both professions.

The CPRB undertook extensive research, analysis, and public consultation as part of the process of introducing statutory regulation for these professions. This work has been informed by, and is in line with, requirements set out in the EU Proportionality Test Directive (transposed into Irish law on 19 August 2022 (S.I. No. 413/2022)).

The public consultation process received over 700 submissions, including from educators, professional bodies and existing practitioners. 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.

In line with the CPRB’s statutory responsibility to assess, balance and consider all perspectives before reaching a final evidence-based decision, the Board carefully considered every submission received and determined the final Standards and Criteria that will underpin entry to the registers for both counsellors and psychotherapists. This open, structured and inclusive process demonstrates CORU’s clear commitment to transparency, accountability, evidence-based decision-making, proportionality and, above all, the protection of the public.

A comprehensive consultation report has been published by CORU, setting out the process followed, the key themes raised in submissions, and the rationale for the final decisions taken by the Board and is accessible at: www.coru.ie/public-protection/publications/consultation-reports/counsellors-psychotherapists-registration-board/.

In July 2025 CORU published two key documents for each of these professions:

• Standards of Proficiency: These outline the threshold knowledge and skills required for entry to the register. They define what a counsellor or psychotherapist must be able to do at the point of entry into practice.
• Criteria for Education and Training Programmes: These set out the systems and processes education providers must implement in the design and management of education and training programmes. They provide assurance that all graduates have achieved all the Standards of Proficiency upon successful completion of an education and training programme.

The adopted Standards and Criteria reflect the threshold knowledge and skills required for safe practice at entry to the professions of Counselling and Psychotherapy. The introduction of consistent standards for the education and training of counsellors and psychotherapists marks a significant milestone, ensuring that those seeking support can have confidence in accessing appropriately trained and qualified practitioners.

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.

CORU’s criteria mandate structured, practice-integrated supervision that enables supervisors and educators to directly evaluate proficiency and ensure safe practice. This approach provides robust, verifiable safeguards while maintaining flexibility for different theoretical modalities. The standards set the threshold for safe and effective practice, without restricting innovation or allowing education providers to exceed these minimum requirements at their discretion.

Regarding professional mobility, the profession of psychotherapist falls under the general system of recognition within the European Union, whereby each Member State determines the required training standards and assesses applications for recognition of qualifications from other Member States through a comparative evaluation. Where substantial differences in qualifications exist, compensation measures may be required.

Irish trained psychotherapists who move to another Member State will be assessed under the general system of recognition in the same way that other Irish trained health professionals are assessed when moving to another Member State, for example physiotherapists and social workers. There is no standardisation of education and training for psychotherapists in the EU and each Member State which regulates the profession does so in a manner which reflects the context in that State.

In relation to movement across the Border, it is important to note that neither counselling nor psychotherapy is currently a statutorily regulated profession in the UK, including Northern Ireland. This means there are no legal restrictions preventing someone from practising as a counsellor or psychotherapist in these jurisdictions.

When the registers open in Ireland the CPRB will become the competent authority responsible for assessing international applicants who wish to practise as counsellors or psychotherapists in Ireland.

At that stage, any person, including those qualified in the UK or Northern Ireland, will be able to apply to have their qualifications assessed to demonstrate that they meet the threshold standards of proficiency, meaning the required knowledge, skills, and competence to practise safely and effectively in Ireland.

I am confident that CORU’s work will bring clear benefits for public protection. The framework has been designed to strengthen standards of practice while ensuring that training pathways and workforce supply are not adversely affected.

I am assured that CORU will continue to engage closely with education providers, professional bodies, and other stakeholders as the regulatory process advances, keeping public protection at the centre of this work.

I am eager to see this work progressed so that two very important professions are finally regulated, in the interest of public protection.