Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 April 2026
876. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Minister for Health if she will outline the engagements her Department has had with professional bodies representing athletic therapists who have approached her Department seeking regulation; the process by which professions not designated under existing regulatory frameworks can obtain statutory regulation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28626/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy may be aware, work is ongoing in my department to develop a framework to guide policy on the regulation of health and social care professionals into the future. The framework will modernise our approach to professional regulation both in terms of how decisions are made regarding professional regulation and the ways in which we regulate professions. The framework will be informed by an evidence and risk-based approach to regulation in line with requirements set out in the EU Proportionality Test Directive.
The issues to be considered regarding the proportionate degree of regulatory force required to protect the public are complex and this is therefore a significant project requiring considerable research and engagement with relevant stakeholders.
It should be noted that statutory regulation forms a part of a system of assurance that the Department utilises to mitigate risk posed to the public by the practise of health and social care professions. Many professions employed in the health service, including in the HSE and the publicly funded sector, are not subject to statutory regulation. For example, audiologists, clinical measurement physiologists, medical physicists, play therapists and play specialists, and perfusionists are among the non-regulated groups which are currently employed by the HSE.
Regulation of additional individual professions, including athletic therapists, is not planned until the risk-based assessment framework is place in compliance with best practice, international evidence, and the Proportionality Test Directive. Once the framework is in place, professions will then be assessed. Work to develop the framework and to assess professions is likely to take a number of years.
My officials have met with the professional body representing athletic therapists (Athletic Rehabilitation Therapy Ireland (ARTI)) on a number of occasions. Officials also attended the World Federation of Athletic Therapy and Training’s World Congress in October 2025. Officials are currently engaging with relevant stakeholders regarding the development of the framework. In that context, ARTI and other professional bodies representing unregulated professions attended a workshop in the Department of Health in March of this year.
