The opening of the Social Workers Register at CORU on 31 May 2011 marked the start of statutory registration of this profession. Social workers who wish to practise in Ireland must now be registered with the Social Workers Registration Board.
Possession of an approved qualification is one of several steps in the recognition process and the Social Workers Registration Board is also designated as competent authority in Ireland for professional social worker qualifications under Directive 2005/36/EC. This Directive applies to all EEA nationals who wish to practise a regulated profession in an EEA Member State other than that in which they obtained their professional qualifications. This includes Irish citizens who study in any of the EEA Member States, including the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and who seek to return to Ireland to practise their profession.
There is no specific recognition of the profession of social worker at a European level; rather the Directive provides for the assessment of the qualifications/professional training/post-qualification professional experience of an applicant against the qualifications required to practise in Ireland. Because of the case-by-case nature of the process, it is time-consuming and administratively burdensome. The Code of Conduct on National Administrative Practices falling under Directive 2005/36/EC provides for the charging of fees for the qualification recognition process once, inter alia, such fees do not exceed the real cost of the service provided, or are not set at a level which would make it impossible in practice to exercise the rights provided for under the Directive. I am advised by CORU that the fee for qualification recognition is set in light of the Directive’s Code of Conduct.
The fees for qualification recognition, which is once-off, and for statutory registration, which is annual, have been set since the establishment of the Social Workers Registration Board.
